MUSIC FROM A POSITION OF DEEP INTROSPECTION: A REVIEW OF BRYMO’S NEW ALBUM ‘YELLOW’…

Brymo has released one of the best bodies of work we will listen to this year. With the crisis the world is facing now with the COVID-19 pandemic, a musical masterpiece is what we just needed. The album titled ‘Yellow’ is a 15-track album with each song brilliantly created to carry a unique message.

It is the kind of album that speaks to real-life struggles in a deeply personal way. There is no way you can listen to the album without stopping to think about its subject. It is astonishing to listen to such unmatched brilliance, lyrical sagacity, undiluted originality consistently from an artist generally underrated by most people. It takes inspiration from various artists ranging from Emeli Sande to John Legend.

‘Yellow’ is the seventh studio album of Brymo and it is obvious Brymo is an avid student of the music and philosophy of Fela Kuti. It is an album that cut across genres ranging from pop to trap and it is testament to the musical prowess of Brymo that irrespective of the instrumentation, each record of this album comes out as a unique piece of a wider jigsaw puzzle.

The message on ‘Espirit De Corps’makes it one of my favourites because of the message it conveyed. It examines the social, cultural and political evolution of a rotten society where fabrications and corruption cause endless agony for the people. Despite being conscious of their actions, the people are not ready to reform their society, only wailing in pain during their days of agony and constantly going back to their old ways once the pain goes away. Brymo could have been talking about most sub-Saharan countries.

 My personal favourite though is ‘Strippers and White Lines‘; mental health is a topic most Africans shy away from yet Brymo tackled it in a way that just makes it human and real. ‘Strippers and White Lines’ is the piece of music that will leave you at peace with yourself. A deeply sentimental record on depression, human struggle and hope. Amidst the struggles with depression, there is also an unflinching struggle for light in the midst of all the gloom. The symbolism embedded in the track title is deeply sadistic. It conveys the dangerous world of the drug abuse related to the work of strippers.

‘Black Man, Black Woman‘ is the record that conveys in the most coherent manner the socio-political aspirations of the artist with regards to this album. It examines the traditional gender roles and their nuances in our society. However, the album ‘Merchants, Dealers and Slaves’ in my opinion remains the best snapshot of the inner beliefs of the artist.

The thematic range on the album is wide-ranging and I daresay Brymo outdid himself and this may be his best work ever when decades later we sit down to analyze the works of this legend.