Joey B’s Lava Feels: Compilation Review

Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Massa Red, Dear Music fan, and lover – This is Cyan Music; do take a seat, and breathe…

We’re here with the review vibes on our side and today we take a look at Joey B’s ‘Lava Feels’ record that came out this month. Darryl Paa Kwesi Bannerman-Martin, icon, fashionista, model, singer, songwriter, and rapper has been a phenomenon since his Tonga single hit the streets. He has indeed built a reputation for himself in the industry and he’s pushed music to far heights with his experimental approach to it. Joey is an influencer and it shows because a lot of new artists with similar styles have been able to step into the limelight because of what he’s been able to achieve. Like every artist, he has his scars from battling the music scene here but it hasn’t stopped him at all. Joey’s experimental nature is what has pushed him to be where he is. Always looking to try something new and flawlessly execute it after many errors. He’s come a long way and we give him props for that. Lava Feels is a 9 track album with a run time reaching 25 minutes. It features popular artists like Stonebwoy, M3nsa, Ko-Jo Cue, Pappy Kojo, E.L, Bosom P-Yung, RJZ, Odunsi, and Sauti. Quite the list for dope guest artists. Well, let’s get into it and see what we have here.  

Personal sentiments, Content and Lyricism, Vocals and Production in no Particular order…

Before anything, we have to address the album art because.. we don’t know what was happening. It looked more like a PlayStation 1 action game rather than an album art. Red had this to say:

Sigh, to begin with, I’m very disappointed in Joey for coming out with such lazy work with regards to his cover art for this project. Little or no at effort at all was put into it.
It looks like the designer ripped a cool picture of lava and found a cool font and just put them
together. Well, to give him the benefit of the doubt I guess this quality of cover art was produced
because of the type of project Joey put out, it is just a compilation. But regardless a little effort
could have been put into producing cool cover art for the project

– Massa Red on the Cover Art of Lava Feels

The album starts with the album title, ‘Lava Feels’. The sound Joey B has adopted and has been experimenting with is growing with time and this album feels like something he’s using to show us how much progress he’s made. Lava feels provides this smooth, easy on the ears sounding instrumental with a very laid back delivery from the artist. You can tell he’s in his zone with this record and it’s a classic opener for the album. Then comes ‘La Bamba’. Honestly sick of hearing lines about time, ‘Rolex’, and ‘Hublot’. It’s getting really old. This song is also a very laid back record. Sark’s delivery was okay. No weird lines but no ‘wow’ factor about it. ‘Silicon Valley’ with P-Yung. I don’t care what anyone says, that hook was trash. It was clumsy, goofy, and lazy to be honest. There was so much more that could have been done and the concept could have been worked on to make it’s delivery better. And the ending to the song was, well, it was Joey B. Dunno what to say about it. ‘Paa Kwesi’ features RJZ of La Meme Gang fame and Joey B starts the song paying respects to legend Daddy Lumba, and you can detect the Lumba feel and sound in the record with the approach to the vocals and lyrics. The hook is pretty catchy as well. A good record overall. ‘‘Over You’ was also a decent record. ‘Affection’ sees Stonebwoy brings a livelier vibe to the record as the previous ones have followed a certain pattern so far. Stonebwoy did justice to his feature and it’s an enjoyable song. Now ‘Far Away’. That record will probably not get the props it deserves. 

Blue had this to say about that particular record:

‘Mensah had the best verse on the album. Period.’ 

The song in itself is perfect, vocally, sonically and it does justice enough to prove Joey’s mettle as a top artist. Because the song doesn’t even sound Ghanaian, and that’s how fresh the sound is. This song undoubtedly opened up the path for ‘Hard Knocks’ with Ko-Jo Cue to settle into the album. Without the other, just one of the tracks would have felt out of place a bit. Joey’s delivery on this record too was flawless and the feature only served to complement a masterpiece. The vocals on this record were also good. The outro to this album was classic and pretty upbeat. All artists delivered the goods and signed off on the album decently. The instrumental was unconventional but it still worked out in the end and that’s what matters. 

Concluding… 

This compilation had its flaws but still came out okay with a lot of very very classic records, a few hitches here and there but all in all an interesting record from Joey B.

The Signature Sign Off…

Big thanks to Mr. Blue and Massa Red for their input and general insight and much appreciation to you, our reader. What do you think of the album? What do you think of this review? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts. This has been Cyan Music, Music Review corner.

kofi Mole’s Aposor Love : The EP Review

Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Massa Red, Dear Music fan, and lover – This is Cyan Music; do take a seat, and breathe…

  So much rain in recent days but look at how the sun still shines. That’s hope right there for anyone looking for it. We do hope you’re breathing well and taking life’s moments one at a time. Review time, and we’re here to go through this EP released by the ‘Aposor Gangster’, kofi Mole titled ‘Aposor Love’. Hip Hop and Afrobeat sensation Mole has been on the rise as part of the Ground Up Chale movement with fellow artists Kwesi Arthur as well as Twitch to name a few, and after his iconic verse on Sarkodie’s recently hosted cypher record ‘Biibi Ba’, which plays successor to his record ‘Trumpets’ back in the day, Mole has established himself on the music scene as one of the young artistes on the rise to look out for. His hit record ‘Don’t Be Late’ which is the opener for this record is nothing short of exceptional and catchy. In short, the boy has found his tune and he’s playing it well.

Personal sentiments, Content and Lyricism, Vocals and Production in no Particular order…

   With 5 songs in total, this EP runs a full length of just about 15 minutes and … this is a good, especially for the theme that Mole is addressing on the record. Mole isn’t exactly the kind of artist that looks or sounds like a romantic but he pulls it off so well and he does it without compromising on his style. That is a double-edged sword.

The album art for Aposor Love is very simple and speaks for itself. From the elements in the composition, you could easily tell Mole is portraying the concept of love to his audience. I also like the Adinkra symbol piercing on his nose. The idea of portraying his culture and where he is from in such a subtle way is very encouraging. Also the fact that the text is not distracting the image is amazing. The designer did a great job by placing the text at noticeable places, yet not distracting. Well, In my humble opinion I think the concept behind the cover art for this EP is splendid.

– Massa Red on the EP cover art of Kofi Mole’s Aposor Love

The record starts off with ‘Me Ne Woaa’ which has a delightful bounce as the tune kicks in; it is a song of reassurance where Mole is telling his lover that it’s the two of them regardless of what happens to or around them. It’s the fact that the instrumentals maintain a simple structure and yet each element comes together perfectly to make the record presentable. This is followed by the record ‘Your Love’ which carries a subtle sensual feeling and just that quickly, we see him channel the afro-beat side. This song is so simple and yet beautifully made. Nothing over the top, Mr. Blue had no issues with it because of the absence of the overused saxophone in this genre according to him as well. The next song takes on and continues the sensual vibe sparked up in the previous record and we embrace the sensual side of the artiste as well and not only the record as the song centres on the thoughts he has about his lover and what he plans he has for them. And Mole doesn’t overdo this, he takes his time and allows the instrumental to control his output. The hook is simple and embodies what the whole song talks about. 

To quote Kendrick Lamar, ‘… Marvellous beat selectors don’t argue with us.’ That boy’s got something special.

– Mr.Blue on kofi Mole’s artistry and musical intellect.

   The single ‘Don’t Be Late’ which we are more familiar with kicks in at this point and it acts as the embodiment of whole the theme and this whole record is about. It is sensual, the production is slick and the instrumentals have the right complexion and tone for the stuff he’s talking about. that track acts as a tour guide through this journey of the different branches of the emotion; love. The interesting weave about the themes and how they are selected subtly tell a story; that’s how much simple records can come together to spin a web telling a story like this. The song ends on an interesting note where Mole is telling his lover that if she’s not ready to love him, she should just let him go; another issue that runs through relationships in this generation. We must compliment Mole for doing all this on his own and not soliciting features to probably chase the clout and all that. Solo projects with no features are hardly ever done these days, moreover done well to a degree like this. 

Concluding… 

  What that tells us is we get to see the artistes by themselves and we get to appreciate their unadulterated talent and style without anyone else bringing their spice in order to create a masterpiece for themselves. The theme resonated in all the tracks and the songs bring it all out in a very simple yet relatable way. This is a good record, the production team understood what they were working with and their work was flawless; and it just means there are more heights for Mole to climb and much more to expect from him in the future. This is dope stuff.

The Signature Sign Off…

    Big thanks to Mr. Blue and Massa Red for their input and general insight and much appreciation to you, our reader. What do you think of the EP? What do you think of this review? Leave a comment and let us know your thoughts. This has been Cyan Music, Music Review corner.