A couple of heartbreaks, heart palpitations and love maladies will either drive you to the nearest bottle(s) of Moscato, or usher you to a dose of the harmonious lyrical flair served in the form of English neo-soul duo Floetry’s debut album, wittily entitled Floetic.
With the help of producers Darren “Limitless” Henson, Keith “Keshon” Pelzer, Vidal Davis, Ivan “Orthodox” Barias and Andre “Dirty” Harris, both Marsha Ambrosius and Natalie Stewart emerged in the mid-90’s as writer in demand. Having written hit tracks for celebrated artists such as Michael Jackson, Jill Scott, Glenn Lewis, and Bilal, the duo was set to produce a masterpiece of its own. Therefore, it came as no surprise when the album sold over 864,000 copies in the United States.
Floetry found their niche in the then rare art of marrying spoken word with soulful vocals. This new style of music had been pioneered by solo artists Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu, but wasn’t quite popular amongst duos and groups.
Ambrosius is the songstress to Stewart’s spoken word impresario or “floacist” role. Their music will transport you to a late-night poetry session, fused with live vocals accompanied by percussion instruments that create a lazy-soulful-Sunday feel as evident in “If I Was a Bird”. RnB creeps its way into the mix in slow and sultry jams such as the persuasively risqué “Say Yes”, whilst reggae jammin’ is also incorporated with a touch of rap in the up-tempo track “Possibilities” .
If you fancy a touch of (female) empowerment and inspiration, you certainly will not find it in this album. Out of the 14 tracks, only one does not include the word “he” and that track is the introductory song “Floetic” which sets the motion for the kind of style that the two artists are into.
The rest have a lot to do with this:
And a bit more of this:
http://www.last.fm/music/Floetry/+images/291818
Like an elegy, the songs lean more towards lamenting over the death of happiness and completion attributed to the loss of love, especially that of a man’s. So you might want to keep your radical feminist friend as far away as possible from this one.
There is also a lot of irony in the title of the title of their songs and the emotions that they evoke; “Sunshine” will bring nothing but grey skies and dampen your mood. Written by the duo in collaboration with English songwriter Andre Harris, the song speaks of the fear and helplessness one feels when having to watch their friend being abused by her boyfriend to the point where he kills her.
Here’s a sneak peak of how the lyrics go”:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/sunshine-lyrics-floetry.html
Another song “Fun” has the paradoxical words “this isn’t my idea of fun”, but best believe that the fast, catchy beat will have you bobbing your head and tapping your foot whether this is your idea of a good jam or not.
Overall, this is the perfect album for the emotional and those whose hearts have been left with scars and stitches one too many times. But worry not, fans of mixed genres and soulful music are bound to snap their fingers for this one.
Blinking Cursor Chronicles 