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The Grammy nominated singer/songwriter Ledisi released her fifth studio album The Truth on March 11th, 2014. It’s been 3 years since her last album, Pieces of Me, released in 2011.
The album starts off with the first single from the album, “I Blame You”. The next song is “Rock With You”, an up-tempo track with an amazing bass line that stands out completely. “That Good Good” is the next song, another fun up-tempo from the songstress. That leads into the 4th song from the album “Lose Control”. Very sensual and vibrant song, this is definitely an R&B record. This could be a fan favorite from the album. The next song is “Like This” lyrics are saying she can’t go on in the relationship like this. The instrumentation and melody are very strong on this song.
“Anything” is the 6th song from the album. It seemed like the background harmonies in the chorus would’ve been a little stronger, since the heavy drumming is the stand out of the song. Ledisi did an amazing job vocally; besides that minor critique the song is still enjoyable. “The Truth” is by the hit making producer Darhyl “DJ” Camper. This is a vocal highlight for the songstress. Lyrics are saying that they have to face the truth about the state of the relationship. Another song where the bass line stands out, the instrumentation is so indescribably good.
The 7th song from the album is “Missy Doubt” another up-beat tempo, with heavy drumming. “88 Boxes” is the next song, the lyrics are explaining how the years, the love, and struggles in the relationship have been reduced to 88 boxes. The quality of this song is beyond words, as far as lyrically and vocally, it is all cohesively well put together. This is another great vocal highlight for Miss Ledisi. The last song on the album is called “Can’t Help Who You Love” the lyrics are saying how the heart has a mind of its own and you have no control over who you love. The song has a quality melody with very thorough instrumentation.
Majority of this album is up-beat and mid-tempos, with no ballads. In which, people have come to look from, from the singer, but it’s amazing she didn’t go that direction. Some may argue this is stretch, but realistically if you look at Ledisi totally as an artist and how much personality is in her voice, as well as her live performances. You would see this album is no way a stretch for the singer. If you look at any R&B song in any era, you can’t say every R&B song that came out was a ballad. It’s more than that, R&B has always been versatile, so to categorized an artist in one format won’t allow that artist to grow musically. She did an excellent job with the direction of the album. Most R&B artists don’t know how to find a balance with making radio friendly records without losing the quality in the production and songwriting, but Ledisi has managed to do both so effortlessly. You can tell this is her personal artistic expression, and she’s done an amazing job conveying that on this album.
The Truth is in stores now, available for (digital) purchase on iTunes and Amazon.
