Album Review: Snoh Aalegra Brings All The “Feels” of Heartbreak In Debut
Your reaction to Snoh Aalegra’s debut album, Feels, can be surmised in two giphys:
Yes, you will feel all those emotions and dance moves because Snoh Aalegra is one of the few voices, rising in the industry, that reminds you a voice, itself, is power. To hear her sing is to hear Soul at its very core, and reminds you this genre’s mission is to embody the human spirit, for better or worse, in sound. The Swedish songstress has long been hailed as the “new Amy Winehouse”, and the comparisons feel right. She has a 1960’s bebop voice that could soundtrack every James Bond film from here to eternity. Yet, more importantly, she carries a “kiss with a fist” mentality; where love is always beautifully toxic.
Aalegra’s Feels is a shining beacon of music because it is glamorously dark. Tracks like, “Walls”, “Fool For You”, and “Worse” feel like the setlist for a noir-bar in Casablanca. There women, draped in red, sing to the roses in their mind and hair, while men look on in with drinks and sorrows in their hand. The image intoxicates, and furthers the power of her voice by also furthering the treachery of love. Aalgra’s vocals swaddle you like velvet, but her perceptions of love can cut you like a knife. In “You Keep Me Waiting (ft. Vic Mensa)”. “Nothing Burns Like The Cold (ft. Vince Staples”), “Sometimes (feat. Logic)”, and “Out of Your Way”, she discusses the heartbreak of feeling tossable in a relationship you would die for. There is a distinction between a partner that loves differently than you and one that loves less than you. Aalegra’ sings to the latter, which is why her rasped, higher range soars with pain and prowess. She hits higher notes like a star burning out; though shining in the sky, it is ready to fall to the ground, which is what happens to love when unappreciated. Such a vulnerable dynamic will make many flock to Feels for those instances when you want to feed sadness rather than combat it.
I know I am supposed to say, “Pick yourself up, and get strong!”, but even those moments are preceded by a good cry and some self-pity. Sure, we all decide who we love, but Snoh’s music is dedicated to the pain of those that chose not to love us back: at least, not rightly. As she belts and billows the raw, sadness of love not returned, her songs splash between classic jazz/ R&B and futuristic, electro rhythms. It is as if she has taken that “Casablanca”, and placed it in Jupiter to remind everyone love never loses its universal edge, but you have to decide whether it will leave you feeling edgy. For More Information On Snoh Aalegra And To Buy Feels On October 20 Click Here.
