Solid Production. Imeenda shule. Cool like cucumber, elegant and crispy in measured metronome and dependable regularity yet exciting and danceable. I can see the production, chorus and name recognition carrying this song.
Not the singing though, not to me at least. And I can even tolerate Angelique Kidjo, without understanding her lyrics.
It almost seems like, when the production gets better -this is an improvement from previous songs- the singing, if at all one is so benerous to even call it that, there is a feeling another word should be invented, gets worse.
If Jide was all that, this was supposed to be like a fourth single of an album, some PYT in "Thriller", not the flag carrier.
Granted I am not a Jide fan - the singing is simply too choirlike, no witty lyricism, no progression or growth from the machozi concept- having said that, the chorus is going to prove catchy to some people just as it proves irritating to me.
As for the lyrics, did I say before that she is inarticulate even on a subject that provides so much fodder at a time that her misery could be so banka le. I was watching a Gwen Stefani interview yesterday, it seems like she has a machine to translate her miseries into deep, luscious, relatable lyrics. With Jide one feels like they have to solve binomial equations to understand what she is talking about, even when one knows what she is talking about.
I like the harmonization, typical choir like influence, but it works. Perhaps I am a sucker for harmonization.
I do not like the fact that the lyrics feel like a bad translation from English. A bad Haruki Murakami 1Q84 translation from English to Swahili, the original baving been in Japanese.
I do not like a hint of ever so slivht Nigerian touch in the hooks.
I do understand the need for simplicity and being catchy in music, but what does "Ndi ndi ndi" even mean?
Unless she threw some Zulu or something for the down south crew -cruel joke, I know- she just comes across as lazy, vague and babbling.
Instead of witty, hot and bubbling.