Made in Lagos Album Review
Wizkid, one of Nigeria’s biggest music export released his most anticipated album and it is not going to live up to the hype. Wizkid has built a large fan base over the years and has made his name making good Nigerian/African music. In this new project Wizkid works on mid tempo songs which could be used to enjoy a slow dance or evening. There are no songs that can turn up a dance floor but can keep a party alive with the slow RnB and Caribbean influenced sounds.
POSSIBLE HITS AND FLOPS
“Longtime”, “True Love”, “Piece of Me”, Smile and “No stress” may become hits among Africans in the UK and USA but not in Nigeria. “Ginger” and “Mighty Wine” may become a hit in Nigeria because of the Burna Boy and its Afropop music. Also “Blessed” which features Damian Marley is a mature sound which is good for meditating and could become the hit for few persons. “Essence” would have been a really dope song but may become a flop because of Tems.
THE ENERGY OF THE ALBUM
The energy of the album is relatively low. There are no risers, fast kicks and transitions. One could play the songs in this album when making love or about to sleep. Unlike the regular Wizkid tunes that makes people want to jump up and dance, the songs in this album calms the nerves and want to make one snooze off while listening. Songs like “Mighty Wine” and “Gyrate” which was produced by LDN could be used to dace but not for energy moves.
RECYCLED LYRICS
Wizkid has never been an artist who is about his lyrics. Over the years he has always recycled his love lyrics. So rating his album over its lyrics is a bad idea but when it come to the sound, one could rate the album. The production is great especially the mixing and mastering. The only problem is that the maturity of the sounds may not be well appreciated by the people of Lagos and Nigerians in Nigeria.
A WRONG TITLE FOR A GOOD PLAYLIST
There are titles that you give to an album and it affects the perception of the proposed listeners. When he said the title of his 4th studio album was “Made in Lagos”; people were expecting hit Nigerian tunes. That was not the case in the two previously released single and obviously not the tracks in this album. It’s hard to think of an album and tag it a project that is below expectation. Because creativity, energy, time and resources was put into crafting the project.
But when one thinks of the expectation and anticipation invested in the album which had a catchy title, one gets gutted. Wizkid made people wait for over 18months for a project that they thought will naturally provoke different social media challenge only for him to give people songs featuring Ella Mai, Tems and HER. Driving people to sleep with the mid tempo tunes.
People would have accepted this album more if it was titled “Sound for the other side vol II.” One may try to argue that Wizkid is trying to continue in his stride in the international market. But the truth is that the songs that catapulted him into the international market were all Afropop/Afrobeats songs. They were not the RnB songs that are in this album. The idea is not to make RnB song, but the idea is when you call an album “Made in Lagos”, people are going to naturally look out for the Lagos originality. The proportion of RnB songs on the album swallowed up the Afropop songs on the album.
Songs like “Reckless” “Blessed” and “Ginger” are good songs but the effects of songs like “Smile”, “Piece of Me”, “Longtime”, “True love” killed the vibe. In some other songs which he chose the sound correctly, he featured the wrong artist. Featuring Tems in “Essence” killed the Afropop vibe of the beat. Tems drags her vocals as a pure soul music maker should and that is not cool with an Afropop sound like “Essence”.
SALES IMPLICATION
Although Wizkid will make major sales because of his fan base and platforms; this album will not rank on same level in terms of acceptance like Ayo and SFTOD albums. There is a big difference between making stream sales/topping chats and a song going viral. Making stream sales is achieved with good marketing platform and backing. While the viral quality of a song is dependent on whether the primary audience of the musician loves and accepts the songs. This pack of RnB songs released by Wizkid may not be accepted by the Nigeria public. Because the average Lagosian may not relate with the songs. The energy is too slow and because the tunes are too western.
Made in Lagos Album Review
