Laura Mvula
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER –
A golden rule that I have picked up about writing is: show, don’t tell. As in, if a character is rude don’t say ‘He’s rude,’ have him do something rude. This rule, ‘show, don’t tell’ can be applied to other art forms, namely music and one which Laura Mvula might want to follow.
Back with a new album, The Dreaming Room after the success of 2013’s Sing To The Moon, expectation is high to see what is new with Laura Mvula. After seeing her at Glastonbury in 2012 I expected a bright, bold performance. So, enter stage right Laura and her band all dressed in black. A curious start, but, she says she’s in the mood to go all out and she straps on a keyboard which, she jokes is her ironing board, Nina.
She starts with a song off her new album which is catchy enough, loud and captures the attention of an eager audience. She says that she will play the new album in its entirety, so although she says she wants to please the crowd her set list would suggest otherwise and three songs in, the mood is a little flat.She’s clearly a talented singer surrounded by a talented band which, includes her brother on cello and her sister on guitar but the content itself is somewhat lacking.
Before each song she offers an introduction: “I finished this song” she says “sent it off to my producer and then had my heart broken.” At this point there is a collective “Awwww” from the audience and the guy behind me shouts “He must be mad!” Clearly people feel her pain.
“So,” she says “I changed the title of the song to Kiss My Arse and this raises laughter from the audience. But the song fails to sum up heartache, anger, sadness or anything associated with a broken heart except the title and although I like her and I am sorry that happened to her, it still doesn’t mean the song itself is any good.
She engages the crowd with sing a longs purely on the strength of her on stage charisma, yet they’re hardly of the feel good variety: “You can’t live with the world on your shoulders” she sings wanting the crowd to sing it back which they gamely do so that I am treated to a loud, out of tune version from the man behind me five times over.
The second sing a long is less melancholy and more just bizarre to the point where I can’t help but laugh “Lay the breadcrumb down” she says. Did she have a bad experience with a chicken kiev? Why should we sing that? My sister turns to me: “You not joining in then?” “No” I reply, a little grumpy by this point and it seems no one else can bring themselves to either.
“These are my last two songs” she says and the crowd actually cheer and she treats us to ‘Green Garden’ from her first album, and the energy in the crowd instantly lifts, she follows this with ‘That’s Alright’, also from her first album. This is the Laura Mvula I came for and it’s not because I know the songs, it’s because the energy, tone and originality are exciting. She can say the new album is great all she likes, but it has to actually be great before I can believe it and the best test of that, is the response from the crowd.
Laura Mvula Official | Facebook | Youtube
When people ask me what music I am in to, I find it very hard to give a definitive answer because, throughout my life I have been in to all kinds of music from House to Heavy Metal. So I can safely say I am open to most things however, I would say that overall my allegiances lie with Electronic music because it covers so many genres and is constantly developing and changing. Having grown up in Manchester my musical tastes have been influenced by nights such as Electric Chair and Mr Scruff which encompasses the sounds of House, Detroit Techno, Disco, Soul, Funk and Hip Hop. As far as bands are concerned, I particularly like bands that are melodic and have a hook and a heart such as Wild Beasts. While living in London in the early noughties, I was also listening to music that didn’t really have a heart, more of a pacemaker. I was listening to Electroclash at nights such as Erol Alkan’s, Trash. I love writing about music and believe you can be honest about why you don’t like something without being disrespectful, a skill I am still learning in real life! But ultimately I understand that music needs to be experienced first, rather than intellectualised but why do one, when you can do both?
