When an artiste has their breakout moment, everything that comes next from them is closely watched. While the spotlight can bring out the best in others, some can falter because the lights are too bright.
The global smash hit “Water”, was the trigger that illluminated the talent that is Tyla. It was a first meeting with the world that made the best of impressions but the introduction was incomplete, but now with the release of her debut album, we finally have the full picture. TYLA is a sonic tome filled with revelations that Tyla isn’t here for just a moment but to make her mark.
Although the release of Truth or Dare had already made it clear that Water wasn’t a fluke, Tyla’s debut album displays an unbridled grasp of the Afropop. Bound together in rhythm and tales of the subtleties of love, TYLA is a complete story from beginning to end. Tyla cracks a recipe that has been as sought after as the fountain of youth.
The singer succeeds were many African artistes have failed, which is the seamless combination of Pop Music and Amapiano. A credit to not only her but the production team which includes Sammy Soso, CeeBeaats, Rayo, Belivve, Alex Lustig, Rayan El-Hussein Goufar, Sir Nolan, P2J, Manana, Christier, and LuuDaDeejay. While the melodies that shimmer across TYLA’s 14 tracks certainly embrace the global sound of Pop, the album has rhythms that sound deeply southern African.
This is somewhat captured in album’s welcoming note, which is a sound recording from a studio session that features Kelvin Momo and is overlayed with Tyla’s mellifluous vocals. I take this intro to be a token of appreciation of where she comes and a hint at what people can expect from the project. From there the album moves into Safer, an anthem for conflicting emotions with an intuitive voice telling Tyla to flee for safety with her heart before it gets broken.
Safer melts into Water, which cascades into Truth or Dare and then the tide settles for a moment with No.1 ft Tems, the Nigerian and South African collaboration we never knew we needed. TYLA is an album carried by a steady tempo and the easily identifiable sounds of Amapiano, yet it is not repetitive. If you were to put even the most similar tracks next to each other, you would understand that they’re similar in that they’re both waterfalls but one is the Niagra Falls and the other is the Victoria Falls.
TYLA is an innovative take on Pop and RnB, woven together with South Africa’s rising sound. It is sensual in some moments, poignant in others and constantly surprising. Jump ft Gunna & Skilibeng was one track in particular that I never saw coming. It carries Dancehall influences, which you wouldn’t expect to work with RnB and Amapiano but somehow it just does.
The sequencing on TYLA is done almost to perfection. One song sinks into the next as effortlessly beautiful as a sunset, and at any moment to touch the dial and press next would be to place your finger on Da Vinci’s canvas while the paint was still wet and thus smudge the Monalisa. Yes the album can still to be listened to but you’ve ruined the form it was meant to be in.
TYLA the album is a reintroduction to Tyla as an artiste and it basks in the spotlight, with high marks in every regard.
