Third album by the British artist, Heaven serves as a little poetic personal development manual, in which the singer takes stock of the lessons she has received in her life.
In the spring, Cleo Sol filled the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London for two evenings. A feat for an artist to whom we cannot yet attribute international celebrity, and who is far from being a leading star in her country. But if we go to see Cleo Sol play, in particular on an emblematic stage, it is also to find one of the faces and one of the voices of Sault, an (not so) enigmatic British collective, of which we know that she is a pillar, alongside rapper Kid Sister, Jamaican artist Chronixx and producer Inflo.
The latter, the mastermind of a brilliant, prolific group (eleven albums in four years of existence!) and who refuses to make any appearances, shares the life of Cleo Sol; the two had a child in 2021, a happy event on which the singer reflected at length on the luminous Mother (2021), a marvel of a second album, conceived in the family cocoon.
The desire to remain authentic
Solo, Cleo Sol reveals herself at length – an exception among the members who make up Sault. Her latest opus, Heaven, serves as a poetic little personal development manual, in which the singer takes stock of the lessons she has received in her life, supplementing them with a few universal truths. Through this sweet manifesto, she also expresses the desire to remain authentic, and connects her evolution – personal and artistic – with her search for inner peace. Judging by the stunning beauty of his music, we thought the neo-soul artist had found it a long time ago. But Heaven, arriving, like Rose in the Dark (2020) and Mother, on tiptoe, tells us the opposite. Cleo Sol puts herself bare and front and center, letting Inflo’s beautiful, stripped-down compositions wrap around her divine voice.
The artist finds beauty in simplicity and immediacy, letting the divine do the rest
The one who uses the metaphor of a little bird with a broken wing (Airplane) speaks throughout her third album about resilience, love, insecurity, and everything that makes each human being whole and unique. While Mother chose breadth, seeking beauty and happiness in the richness of the compositions, Heaven, made up of nine short songs, is more direct. We don’t know who she is addressing: perhaps her blood, perhaps those she loves… Very possibly herself. With a hitherto unprecedented economy of words, which benefits the subtlety of his art.
One of the most beautiful voices of neo-soul
We find traces of Jill Scott and Lauryn Hill in one of the most beautiful voices of neo-soul. Highlighted as never before with Cleo Sol, singing is nevertheless the guarantor of diaphanous music placed under the sign of tranquility. The artist finds beauty in simplicity and immediacy, letting the divine do the rest. Its references, then, are also bare, whether it is R’n’B with pop accents of the 1990s (we find the influence of D’Angelo in the title song, and in Miss Romantic the flavor of TLC), jazz (with “lounge” accents in Self, which opens the album, or eyeing jazz fusion during Nothing On Me which accelerates the tempo) or, of course, neo -soul of the high priestesses.
With the very beautiful Airplane, Cleo Sol even seeks inspiration in American folk music from the 1960s. Finding grace in her musical confessions, Cleo Sol stops time and encourages us to enter into contemplation in front of what we have already completed and what remains for us to conquer, aware that only art offers her the opportunity to create a world over which she has control.
Cleo Sol, Heaven. Sorti le 15 septembre. Label Forever Living Originals. Genre soul / R’n’B
2023-09-28 18:02:27
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