Weeping Angel by iyla
'Weeping Angel' by iyla
The prefix “alt-” is just short for “alternative,” but, when applied to a musical genre, it hints at greater devotion to form, tradition, or subject matter than the mainstream version of a genre might have.
However close alt-R&B go-getter Iyla might be to that mainstream, her devotion to the music is unimpeachable on Weeping Angel, a debut full-length that extends the promise and fulfillment of three EPs released from 2018 to 2023.
After touring as supporting act for Demi Lovato and completing her first headlining tour across North America, Iyla has upped her ambition alongside her profile: “Corset” is as much of an opening statement as it is an opening track, with a lover shrugged off like a restrictive piece of clothing while mystical chanting choirs rise behind cool lead vocals.
Her producer and partner, Kadis—who’s also worked with Bruno Mars and Lil Wayne—serves as an open-eared collaborator with a Pro Tools library full of apt beats, offhand samples, and fancy flourishes that usually enhance Iyla’s main art.
Some of the best tracks pass through phases: the deeply sensual “Overboard” shifts from a susurrating rhythm to a lazily blissful piano passage, then on to a gliding fall avec seagulls; “Wild” swings to a familiar hip-hop beat but ends with thunder and a small, neat spoken-word moment.
Iyla and Kadis intently flow between tracks, connecting ideas and styles with a handful of hiccups (some pitch-shifted vocals and extra percussive touches are distracting), and she can sing at myriad tempos and in myriad styles without doing so as though she always has something to prove.
She proves something anyway with “Blue Eyes,” a ballad to her late mother that is almost exactly as basic and plaintive as it should be. Perhaps more than anything else on Weeping Angel, it beckons mainstream R&B audiences to come to her.
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Stream or purchase Weeping Angel on Amazon here.
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