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“What may be the most admirable and enjoyable thing about Sing To The Moon is Laura’s fearlessness. She is simply not afraid to take sonic risks”.

Laura Mvula – Sing To The Moon  8/10

RCA/Sony

Much attention has been paid to Laura Mvula over the past year. The former secondary school teacher turned soul songstress had a momentous year, exemplified by being nominated to the prestigious BBC Sound of 2013 list (on which she ended up taking 4th place), as well as her critically lauded She EP. The self-proclaimed “geeky kid of R&B” is now releasing her first full-length record, Sing To The Moon, and let’s just say that the attention paid to her recently was not wasted. What stick out first, and is apparent in every single track, is the complexity and richness of the arrangements. As a graduate of the Birmingham Conservatoire with a degree in composition, she has taken her education to heart and really gone all out to arrange her songs creatively while keeping certain more traditionally classical and jazzy elements. One need get no further than the opening track, the triumphant “Like The Morning Dew” to realize this, as it becomes evident through the development of the layered vocals and harmonies and their interplay with the horns that great care and creativity has been given to the arrangement. She manages to blend the old with the new seamlessly, never relying on either or too much.

The one criticism (if you can call it that) of Laura Mvula has been in regards to the similarity between her voice and late Amy Winehouse’s, as they both are capable of carrying upbeat jazz tempos or sultry ballads through their voices alone. Amy needed Mark Ronson for her best work, whereas Laura is more versatile. She can go from sounding Erykah Badu type neo-soul over a minimalistic arrangement of handclaps and delicate harps on “Green Garden”, to sounding grandiose over a more complex blend of tribal drums and layered voices that could be out of a Broadway musical on “That’s Alright”.

What may be the most admirable and enjoyable thing about Sing To The Moon is Laura’s fearlessness. She is simply not afraid to take sonic risks. The variety of instruments and sounds used on the album are nearly mindboggling, ranging from bells, brass, strings and even to using voices and harmonies themselves as the backbone of the track. “Father Father” relies on lonely piano notes to craft a song reminiscent of lullabies for children, whereas “Is There Anyone Out There” take a stand up bass line and develops it into an exultant track through bells, harps, strings and doo wop style layered vocals. If anything is evident from this album, it is that Laura Mvula is an incredibly talented singer/songwriter/arranger, and will continue to deliver great music as her career progresses. With the ability to delve into various styles of music effortlessly, she will continue to be able to create a place for herself. Sing To The Moon is a fantastic debut album, and we look forward to her future efforts.