Ella Mai is a London-based R&B singer-songwriter who first gained a bit of notoriety when she appeared on Season 11 of “The X Factor” as part of a trio known as Arize. Though they didn’t get very far in the competition and broke up shortly after, Ella ended up releasing a 4-track solo EP called “Trouble” on Soundcloud. She was quickly discovered on Instagram and signed to DJ Mustard’s record label 10 Summers Records, where she would release a trilogy of EPs from 2016-2017. It started with “Time,” continued with “Change,” and then ended with this EP right here. Her first EP “Time,” though it didn’t see much chart success, notably had a single called “She Don’t” which featured Ty Dolla $ign, which served as the first time she grabbed a prominent feature, and this EP’s release coincided with Ella’s appearance as an opener on Kehlani’s “SweetSexySavage” tour. Recently, Ella has been making major waves, specifically here in the US, where her breakout single “Boo’d Up” has not only charted higher than it did in her home continent but has thus far reached #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has been dubbed by Rolling Stone as “one of the biggest singles by a breakout female R&B singer in the past 10 years.” High praise, indeed.
Now, originally, I didn’t think I’d be covering this project, but the reason I am is actually a somewhat funny story: recently, I was on Spotify, and on my account, I have two playlists: one is for all the songs I list as “favorites” in my reviews, and the other is for songs I enjoy from albums/mixtapes/EPs/etc. that I don't have reviews of. While listening to music through Spotify, I realized that I didn’t have “Boo’d Up” in the latter playlist. I had to change that, because “Boo’d Up” is a song that I absolutely adore. It’s easily one of my favorite Top 10-peaking singles of the year (and probably one of my favorite overall singles of the year), so I had to add it to my playlist. Originally, I was gonna do just that, but on Spotify, I wasn’t led to the “single” version, I was led to the full EP itself. Noticing that it was only 6 tracks and 21 minutes, I decided, “hey, why not review the whole EP instead of just adding one song to my playlist?” So, let’s see if Ella’s EP can live up to what is one of my favorite singles of the year.
Boo’d Up: I have played this song on repeat too many times to count already. I already mentioned at the beginning that I absolutely adore this song, so I’ll try to keep this part short: this very romantic cut is a beautiful piece of R&B goodness, where Ella sings about someone that makes her feel like the greatest person in the world. I love the click-clacking percussion, Ella’s vocals are beautiful, and the hook is too sticky: it gets in your head and won’t get out, but luckily, it’s something you won’t mind having in your head. Again, one of my favorite Top 10-peaking singles of the year, it’s definitely a really lovely track that starts off the EP wonderfully.
Breakfast in Bed: Taking things far differently from the upbeat feel of “Boo’d Up,” this one features a more eerie, mysterious DJ Mustard-produced instrumental, as Ella takes on more of a trap-flavored song where he yearns to give her lover things such as, obviously, “Breakfast in Bed.” While it definitely has a nice vibe to it and the beat is head-noddy enough, I don’t think this one is as immediate as “Boo’d Up” because I don’t think it gives Ella quite the same amount of room to explore her vocal range, and the hook isn’t quite as memorable either. Definitely not a bad cut, but definitely one of the weaker cuts on the record.
Nobody Else: Moving back to something more upbeat, this is another trap-flavored song with a DJ Mustard instrumental that I’m sure you’ve heard more than a few times before. Still, it does have a pretty fun groove to it, the hook is relatively fun, and even if Ella stays mostly in her lower register, her vocals are very smooth, as she sings about how her lover should be loyal to her, and not be getting romantic with anyone else. Again, I’m sure it’s nothing you haven’t heard before, but it definitely still has enough fun production and nice vocals to satisfy.
My Way: BABY WON’T YOU COME MY WAYYYYY, GOT SOMETHING I, oh…sorry, Fetty Wap, this is about Ella. Anyway, this one feels like Ella’s attempt to show who wears the pants in the relationship, as she sings and warns her lover about how he'd better treat her right if he wants her to stay Adding to that, the instrumentals here are once again very dark and mysterious, but unlike “Breakfast in Bed,” I find it to be more sticky and enjoyable, and Ella’s charm is on full display, as she sells what might be seen as a rather repetitive hook (“only my way, my way, my way”) because of her very smooth and charismatic vocals. Good track!
Makes Me Wonder: AND IT REALLY MAKES ME WONDER IF I EVER GAVE A FU…dammit, I keep thinking of other artists' songs from these titles. Sorry, force of habit. Anyway, no, this is not the Maroon 5 song, this is Ella indulging in nostalgia, singing about an old relationship, and wondering what happened to it. Once again, her vocals are quite pretty, even though she spends most of the song in her lower register, but I think what stops me from really enjoying this is that it sounds like almost any other DJ Mustard-produced track. Hell, as pretty as Ella’s vocals are, I couldn’t help but think of her as sounding like a “female Chris Brown” on here. It’s not a terrible track, I just really think it’s missed potential, and Ella deserves better than this.
Anymore: Finishing things off, Ella plays off the title of the EP, claiming that she’s “ready” to move on from the relationship she was once in. And again, I think the hook is occasionally pretty fun, but the song just feels a bit too much like every trap/R&B fusion that you’ve heard before. There’s a very standard 808-drum beat, and unfortunately, the song doesn’t give Ella a whole lot of room to really show off the power of her vocals. I’m sure it’s a cut that others will get some enjoyment out of, but after hearing a number of tracks that sound just like this on this very EP, it’s definitely not the best ending to the project.
Overall, Ella Mai had a great idea going with the theme of “Ready” by starting off with a track about the amazing feelings of love and then having the next tracks gradually decrease over the project, and she definitely had an incredible single on her hands with “Boo’d Up,” but unfortunately, I feel like her support structure was not quite strong enough to make this EP pop like that one single did. For the most part, outside of “Boo’d Up,” everything else on the project felt like wash-rinse-repeat trap-flavored cuts that don’t distinguish themselves much from other DJ Mustard-produced singles. And Ella’s vocals, though mostly nice, weren’t allowed to be explored as fully because she wasn’t given enough room to run around and show them off thanks largely to the very homogenous production. Luckily, I did come away from this thing with a few pretty solid tracks that I’ll throw into the regular rotation, and I can say that I would definitely LOVE to hear more from Ella, especially after how amazing “Boo’d Up” is. I just hope that, when her eventual debut album DOES release (because let’s be honest, it’ll happen sooner or later), she gets some slightly better production to work with than she did here. Overall, not a bad start, but hopefully Mustard gives her a bit more room for experimentation on her next project.
And on a side note, with this review, the streak is officially over. Dating back to my first review of Ed Sheeran’s “÷”, every 10th album I reviewed received an “Excellent" rating. The Weeknd’s “Beauty Behind the Madness” was #10, Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” was #20, P!nk’s “Beautiful Trauma” was #30, Sam Smith’s “The Thrill of It All” was #40, Childish Gambino’s “Awaken, My Love!” was #50, Camila Cabello’s “Camila” was #60, Drake’s “If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late” was #70, Judas Priest’s “Firepower” was #80, Janelle Monáe’s “Dirty Computer” was #90, BROCKHAMPTON’S “SATURATION III” was #100, and Ne-Yo’s “GOOD MAN” was #110. Each of those projects received an “Excellent” from me, which had me thinking every 10th album I reviewed would get an "Excellent" no matter what. Well, here we are, at review #120…and I’ll just let you scroll down to see the rating.
Favorite tracks: Boo’d Up, Nobody Else, My Way
Least favorite tracks: Breakfast in Bed, Makes Me Wonder, Anymore
Rating: Okay (yep, the “every 10th review is an 'Excellent'” streak is over)
No comments:
Post a Comment