What a belting album!
Frankly, that could suffice as the end of my review as I have nothing negative to say about it.
For those who don’t know, Kyla Brox is the daughter of Victor Brox – British R&B (in the original sense) royalty and since touring with her father back in the nineties she has had a strong solo career with a powerful sense of soul and Blues at the core of her music.
This album has been more than a couple of years in the making since her last solo album in 2016 and it is a real joy to hear her voice, soulful and gentle, again.
She has created an album filled with classic soul & Blues feel, horns throughout – she was nominated a couple of times for British Blues Awards as an instrumentalist (flute) – and driving beat courtesy of Danny Blomeley (bass) and Mark Warburton (drums).
The songs veer between blasting Blues such as ‘For The Many’ (pinning her politics firmly to the mast) with its blasting horns and rhythmic keyboards and ‘Bluesman’s Child’ (autobiographical) which has a gospel opening but swiftly elevates to an R&B belter to soft and delicate soul songs like the title track with her voice up front and deeply emotional over a whispering keyboard from John Ellis.
The music ebbs and flows, covering a wide range of styles but always with that central feel of a passionate Blues singer and it all has the feel of a well crafted album that represents exactly where Kyla Brox life has brought her so far.
The album closes on her version of ‘Hallelujah’, stripped back and brimming over with purity and passion – about as far as you can get from Alexandra Burke’s version and bringing the song back to its wonderful pain.
Overall, a stunning album, welcome back Kyla Brox.
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