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Sara Lugo - What About Love
Sara Lugo - What About Love
One of the sunniest releases of the year.
Sampler
Sara Lugo, the diminutive diva with the big voice has been a fixture on the German scene, wowing local and international audiences with her live shows and, often impromptu, on-stage collaborations. Now her debut album is here and if you like jazz, soul and lovers rock it's sure to be one of the sunniest releases of the year.
Like a fruity new world sauvignon blanc, Sara’s voice is a many splendoured thing. And while lyrically she’s not as confident as a Gentleman (to use a lazy comparison) her English lyrics are impressively strong. The album was produced by Umberto Echo, who has been with her since she began her career singing with her brother’s band Jamaram.
Sara has been open about wanting to cross over – hence this is a record of two halves. Some fans may be shocked by a disc that is equal parts reggae and what the marketing people sadly but inevitably called “neo soul” - which is strange as soul has always audibly been a key part of both reggae music and Sara's sound.
What is surprising is how polished and assured this is for a debut. Some of her early singles relied mainly on the power of her vocals and she would have got a free pass due to her extraordinary tones had this been the case here. Yet she and Echo have clearly worked hard to make this a “proper album”: unified, well ordered and on point from start to end.
Despite the jazzy soul vibes, handclaps and electric piano this isn’t an escapist work. There is a strong vein of social commentary running through songs like opener What Happened and the Naptali combo And They Cry. Sara’s main message is that people get in touch with their emotions so she doesn't deal in political specifics as much as general suffering and lack of direction in the world.
Her more personal songs brim with innocence and experience in equal measure (as encapsulated by the ambiguous “play with a feather” line on Rocksteady, previously released on her self-titled Oneness Records EP). Part Of My Life, presumably about her brother, on Greenyard's Design rhythm and with its child's vocal refrain, is the strongest track and suggests there is plenty more quality to come.
The cliché "the sound of the summer" might apply here but doesn't go far enough. Sara’s music IS the summer - every ray, every blossom, every bloom in audio form.
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