A Journeyman Guided By The Music

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Masego’s strategy to music has at all times been as clean because the candy symphonies that go away the top of his trademark saxophone. His cool demeanor has produced data as out-of-the-box as “Outdated Age,” as funky as “Women That Dance,” and as flavorful as “Silver Tongue Satan.” With a smirk and the crack of a smile, Masego can step to the mic and do no matter he desires – efficiently at that.

His 2018 debut album Girl Girl was a proper introduction to Masego the individual. The 25-year-old singer on the time was filled with youth which produced an album that portrayed his witty, flirtatious, and at occasions, tender-hearted persona. His 2020 challenge Finding out Overseas balanced the highs and lows of affection with a tropical backdrop that just about distracted you from his qualms in romance. Almost three years after that challenge’s launch, Masego returned together with his self-titled sophomore album which is a superb mix of the most effective components in his discography. With Masego, the “Tadow” singer dances via the unfulfilled elements of his life whereas additionally noting that music will at all times be the least of his worries.

Masego is the challenge I’ve at all times needed from Masego. Although its 14 tracks have but to exist on the planet for greater than every week, the weather that make up its full composition are so robust that when mixed, it requires the “magnum opus” title to be bestowed upon it. Give it time and also you’ll see that to be true. Finding out Overseas is a physique of labor that resulted from Masego pushing himself out of his consolation zone to study and expertise new blends, tones, and a lot extra with music. Masego is the results of these learnings when mixed with the sturdy basis that Masego constructed upon to turn out to be the dazzling singer and instrumentalist that we all know him to be at the moment. If Girl Girl and Finding out Overseas had a lacking puzzle piece between them, Masego can be that piece.

That is evident via data like “You By no means Go to Me” which mixes components of jazz and funk with the liberating feeling of using in a convertible on a sunny day together with your arms within the air. Its refrain is out there for a enjoyable call-and-response second for an viewers due to the adjustments in Masego’s tone all through every line. Then there’s “Say You Need Me” which is steered by tropical drums and the identical inspiration that blanketed Finding out Overseas. It’s flavorful and tantalizing as Masego weaves via components of afrobeats and dancehall to reel a lady into his mattress after she knocked him off his seat. These heat data make up a slim proportion of the entire album, and it’s for that motive that they’re so refreshing and noteworthy when their flip comes on Masego.

Although the music isn’t a priority on Masego, neither is it for Masego himself, there’s a little bit of grappling that the singer is left to do in different areas of life. The failed reciprocation of affection is the overbearing subject for Masego on his sophomore album. “You Play With My Coronary heart” sounds prefer it’s set at a diner the place Masego sits and dwells to no finish a few girl who was unserious at greatest about loving him. Steam from a presumably sizzling drink floats to his face as he wearily sings about his newest qualms in romance. “You play you with my coronary heart / I lay at the hours of darkness,” he croons. “You play with my coronary heart / You had been dancin’ with a star.” Moments earlier than, Masego put his wit on show on “Afraid Of Water” for a double entendre that paints a shallow girl with nothing to supply past the floor as somebody who can’t swim and fears the blue waters. Even when he does discover somebody appropriate for himself, it ends with their departure and Masego’s disappointment as we see on “Down In The Dumps.” Automobile notes might’ve been paid and journeys to Monte Carlo might’ve been taken, but their untimely exit – which has Masego in his emotions – has brought on them to overlook out on all of it.

Proper there, one other facet of Masego comes alive. The expectations Masego had for fame are removed from actuality. “Remembering Sundays” is a weary reflection of the times earlier than the celebrity when serenity and tranquility had been simpler to come back by. He doesn’t miss it per se, however his present life-style has made him extra appreciative of it. His quarrels with fame spill into the combative “Who Cares Anyway” for a swing on the so-called tastemakers and critics which have misunderstood and tried to field within the ever-so-diverse and genre-spanning singer. Should you couldn’t inform that Masego is a person of music and nothing extra, this document is proof of that. “I imply, yeah, we getting cash / Yeah, we getting notoriety,” he quips. “However these days y’all trying actual, actual dumb / I needed to say one thing.” Moments of appreciation for his place aren’t laborious to seek out on Masego. “Sax Fifth Avenue” is a playful pun on “Saks Fifth Avenue” and a salute to his trustee saxophone that has earned him the eye that acting on Saks Fith Avenue might convey. Because the album concludes, “In Type” opens the gates for a triumphant and sax-laden ode to the highlight he at the moment stands in.

Masego spotlights the musician that’s Masego. At almost 30 years previous, the singer is a seasoned journeyman who trusts the music to information him to his vacation spot. Certain, he’s nonetheless working to know the elusive ideas of courting and fame, however at the least there’s one thing that may help him in recognizing and expressing the successes and failures inside it. Whereas many use a self-titled challenge for his or her official introduction to the music world, Masego waited almost a decade into his profession to try this. There’s in all probability motive for that, however I’d should guess that it has one thing to do with this being the proper encapsulation of all the pieces that makes Masego, Masego. So with each blare of the saxophone, croon of the voice, and witty lyrics, know that Masego has mastered the music, and proof of that lives throughout the hypnotizing components of Masego.

Masego is out now by way of EQT Recordings/Capitol Data. Discover extra info right here.