This week's PBS Feature Album is Lianne La Havas, the third album from Lianne La Havas and her first in five years.
La Havas spent a lot of time moving back and forth between the UK and the States working on writing and exploring her own identity. As a result, Lianne La Havas feels spacious and luminous. Its sunbaked sounds recall, in places, the Brazilian singer, songwriter, and guitarist Milton Nascimento ('Seven Times'). You might also hear the curveball chords of Joni Mitchell and Jaco Pastorious's jazz explorations ('Green Papaya'), or the puttering drums and inviting warmth of golden-era Al Green ('Read My Mind'). And throughout the record, there's a sense of empowerment that has its roots in the crisp 90s R&B of Destiny's Child.
Lianne La Havas is ten songs that span the arc of a love relationship. The album's opener, 'Bittersweet' functions as a kind of an overture, setting out what follows, before the giddy, love-struck rush of 'Read My Mind'. If these first few songs suggest a flower opening its petals, that's no coincidence: "What plays a big role in the album is the idea of the life cycle of plants and nature--equating this journey with a seasonal thing that blooms, thrives, goes away, and comes back even stronger," La Havas says.
Over the five years it took for the album to come together, La Havas described herself watching the changing foliage outside her window in south London, and being struck by how she was growing and changing herself--not always comfortably.
"A flower has to dry up and die in order to be reborn," she says. "You have to get to the rock bottom to rebuild yourself."
Lianne La Havas is out now. If you're a PBS member, tune in this week for a chance to win a copy. Not a member? Join up today!
TOP TRACKS WE'RE LOVING
Gavsborg - 'Quality Time with Pele, Shanique, Nico & Nic'
BRICK HEAD - 'Fatal Flourish'
Your Grandparents - 'So Damn Fly'
Gelareh Pour - 'I Never Saw You Again'
Hunter Mile & The French Press - 'The Good Things About Me (Were All Just You)'
Ex-Olympian - 'Voices In My Head'
Shoeb Ahmad - '16'
Motion Ward - 'Triz Cohors pt. 3'
Hachiku - '99 Luftballons'