When Takura announced his King of Hearts project, my first feeling was that it would be a HipHop album. The tracklist of 11 songs had features such as Priddy Ugly, Mas Genesis and Jnr Brown, which fed into my delusion and I could already hear the arguments among HipHop heads about who outshined who on each song.
Of course in hindsight I see that the title should’ve made it obvious that we were getting the vocal Takura and not the rapper. Something his EP “Waiting Room” had clearly hinted to earlier in the year, by it’s content. However while the HipHop fan in me was disappointed, the music fan was more than appeased. The Shona Prince, proved himself to not just be self proclaimed royalty among his tribesmen but royalty in the RnB genre.
If I had my doubts before then King of Hearts surely dispelled them. It is 11 tracks of rich sonic and lyrical storytelling. In some small regard it feels like a short album, yet you could argue in it’s that it is lean. Shedding off any dead weight that would have served nothing else but to extend the runtime. The production on the album, handled by a combination Tipy, VZ, Clef Jones, Kanaboy, Ransom, Silvr Beats, Pro and Another One, is the perfect canvas for even the tone deaf to paint with music.
King of Hearts Tracklist:
- King of Hearts (Intro) ft Kuda Rice
- Nightmares ft Priddy Ugly
- Waifila ft Mas Genesis
- Mwaruwari
- Venencia ft Jah Prayzah
- Ndinae’s Misplaced Confessions
- Zororo
- Hazvireve Rudo Handina
- Slow Wine ft Cyani
- Pretty Zim Girl ft Jnr Brown
- Sekuseka (Outro)
When the album was released, Hazvireve Rudo Handina was an instant favourite. The track borrows the core of it’s chorus, from Oliver Mtukudzi’s famous 2005 hit “Hazvirete”. The track has an easy tempo and emotive vocalisations from Takura that make it just right on the hear. I instantly saw it’s potential as a radio hit on the first listen.
Pretty Zim Girl similarly has the same radio potential, and the track’s title says, it is song that celebrates Zimbabwean women. Jnr Brown delivers a verse that perfectly offsets Takura’s vocals, with it’s cadence and sound.
While those mentioned tracks feel just right for the radio, Waifeeler has everything to make it just right on the aux. Takura and Mas Genesis just blend well together, to produce a record that is far more upbeat than it’s subject matter. Slow Wine feels sensual in how Takura sinhs it and it has delicate tempo that is complimented by one of the best performances from the featured artists by Cyani.
Nightmares offers up a beautiful balance of rap and rnb. Takura here paints the everyday rat race as a noose around our that could just snuff out any enjoyment we have from life. While melancholic in it’s lyrics, sonically the track is upbeat. Priddy Ugly and Takura, play off each other perfectly, which gives the song great replay value.
King of Hearts as an album feels very intentional. Midway through it there’s the interlude Ndinae’s Misplaced Confessions which encapsulates the mixture of emotions surrounding our self worth. It hits deep and it gives a new vantage point to everything this album contains.
Mwaruwari is song about a couple carrying forward even though they’re obstacles. It has the same delicate nature that characterises Slow Wine, while being less sensual and more melancholic. The song is centred around the notion of “ride or die”. King of Hearts, certainly paints the picture of Takura as the Pied Piper of emotions. However nothing quite represents the essence of this album like King of Hearts, the intro.
It comes in two parts, with each as insightful as the next. The first is a spoken word performance by Kuda Rice, while the second is the briefest of vocal performances by Takura. King of Hearts has a poignant feeling, especially brought about by it’s lyricism. To sum it up, it is a song (and spoken word performance) centred around the curse of an artist. The curse being the ability to articulate emotions and express that bring about healing to those who listen to you, but that healing is denied to yourself.
Venecia which features Jah Prayzah comes off “as the get up and dance” record. It’s Traditional Contemporary meets RnB and the execution is everything. The chorus is done Shona and it has a distinctly Zimbabwe, while the bridge vocalised in English brings to mind Jeremih’s “Don’t Tell ‘Em” in it’s melody. The different textures in sound just somehow work.
Sekuseka (Outro) is the perfect closing chapter to this album. It reflects on the journey Takura has taken through music and it expresses gratitude. By the time it ends, you want to start listening to the album all over again.
King of Hearts is a well curated project, from it’s production to how the music tells a story from one track to the next. It adds another glittering chapter to Takura’s career as a musician and it’s certainly right there among 2023’s albums of the year.
