Sweet Tooth

Uniquely cosmopolitan, Halima was born in New Jersey, raised in Lagos and London, and is based in Brooklyn. She bought her first guitar at the age of ten and coped with her itinerant circumstances by throwing herself into music. Genres, styles, and scenes across the continents fueled her creativity, and she took more inspiration from Joan Armatrading and Tracy Chapman, pioneering Black women artists who freely avoided being pigeonholed based on race and gender. Sweet Tooth is Halimas debut album for Drink Sum Wtr, the label that snapped her up after a clutch of singles and an EP dating back to 2018. The move was transparent from 2024s Exu EP, her first release for the label, and this sees her continue to fuse progressive R&B with left-field pop that takes in Afrobeats and U.K. garage with flashes of a traditional singer/songwriter approach. Sweet Tooth starts invitingly with "Omoge," a gently pattering ballad in which Halima uses the titular Yoruban term of endearment to console, admire, and yearn for her object of affection. Loved-up energy flows through much of what follows. In the scampering "Eleven Eleven," Halima is agitated and work exhausted until shes struck by new love, letting loose a golden second hook that begins with "Shes in my bed" and ends with "Oh shit, now Im involved," all startled elation. "Eau de Vie," soundtracking a night after the morning after, slips and slides with an air of seduction. A few scenes later, over elegiac synthesizer wash, Halima is a mix of emotions, entreating her partner to not leave but making it known that "I could hold you down, but I wont put on a show." Her spirit quickly lifts with the Afro-Caribbean dancefloor delight "Cocoa Body," the most sensual track, pairing a desirous vocal with lightly tumbling drums and a cluster of synthesized mallets. The sounds of the album, produced by Halima with the likes of Mikey Freedom Hart (Jon Batiste, Taylor Swift) and Corey Smith-West (Ivy Sole, Musclecars), continue to change shape in the second half. "Feel About It" brings together Timbaland-like twitching drums, spiky electric keys, and swaying strings. "Callum" isnt much more than lapping percussion, spare bass tones, and fine baubles, its tottering motion accentuating Halimas stupor as she phones a friend for more than a ride from the party: "I wont hide my glow no more...every day Im writin love songs." And how. ~ Andy Kellman

ブルックリンの女性シンガーのデビュー作。軽妙な2ステップに乗せてナイト・ライフを描写する"Eleven Eleven"や、オルタナティブR&Bにアフロなエッセンスを加えた"November Like U"など、R&Bを基本としながらUKガラージとアフロビーツが混ざるスタイルは、ロンドンとラゴスで育ったという経験からくるものなのだろう。猥雑なムードのアフロビーツ"Cocoa Body"も、ファルセットが涼やかに響く端麗なヴォーカルのおかげで、どこか都会的な洗練を持つ。プロデュースにはこれまでにブラッド・オレンジやラナ・デル・レイを手掛けたマイキー・フリーダム・ハートらが関与。
bounce (C)池谷瑛子