Release Date: 21 April 2023
Song Count: 10
Duration: 35 minutes, 56 seconds
Rating: 7.4/10
Description:
Song Count: 10
Duration: 35 minutes, 56 seconds
Rating: 7.4/10
Description:
Almost exactly three years ago today, a British-Nigerian visionary musician by the name of Joshua Idehen stepped onto the front stage by releasing his fifth album: Learn To Swim, A Mixtape. Coming off of the original single of the same initial name "Learn To Swim", Idehen works his magic once more to produce an album unlike most other works out there in the scene. Taking the divisive vocal delivery style of spoken word and poetry and combining it with smooth, low-energy dance beats, the artist conjures up a unique sound with an even more unique aim - spreading around motivational sentiments through his work as a means to make the world a better place.
Idehen's calm delivery consistently tows the line between flowing in coherent rhymes and stating his messages straight-on as he speaks about toxic masculinity, unhealthy relationships, the truths of getting older and facing difficulties maintaining connections, and plenty of other fundamental life lessons. The partially rhythmic deliveries are then put on top of backdrops that frequently pull attention away from themselves through their downbeat, almost lo-fi nature, leading to a fascinating soundscape permeating the entire album all around. The scale in which how much the tracks lean into their musicality compared to their direct messaging slides around throughout the album, with tracks like the sequel "Learn To Swim, Pt. 2" being quite upfront about what they have to say with lesser regard for upholding a groove, and others like "Best Kind Of Lost", for example, being much more music driven.
Spoken word in music has always been an extremely hit-or-miss style for my personal tastes, as they can elevate the pieces they are in very high up if it is executed well, but can also completely shatter any sort of orientation that the music that contains it has if it is not. Luckily, Learn To Swim, A Mixtape emerges as a successful utilisation of the delivery method as a track that has a lot to say but also never loses sight of its musicality on a level that feels overly preachy or anything of the sort. It incorporates fundamental life lessons into an aural medium in a zany manner that only someone like Joshua Idehen can pull off, and for that, the album definitely deserves its praises, as it was quite easy to mess up the delicately set up balance within its music through merely subtle differences that ended up being avoided. Not a work that blew me away, but one that was certainly fascinating to experience, enriching in its contents and led me to think plenty about certain things I thought I was already aware of in life. Feel free to give this one a whirl - perhaps it will click with you even more than it did with me.