FEMI takes me back to a Sade concert I attended in San Francisco in the 1985-86 time frame. These are fond memories because I was jumping head first into exploring jazz and all of its sub genres. Sade was a combination of pop and jazz that I found very appealing. FEMI is similar and has the same appeal for listeners that like a musical stew that includes pop, funk, soul, R & B, and the far away fringes of hip-hop, all propelled by a formula that uses jazz as its springboard.
Sweet Water Soul is an impressive EP debut that introduces you to an artist that is not afraid to bare her soul and heritage to the world. While using water as the driving force and or theme of the project, her firm roots in Puerto Rico are the piece of her soul that helps her to realize her highest expectations deep inside, pushing her performing abilities to its very zenith.
The six tracks put FEMI on the stage in your mind with a smooth groove that matches her sultry sweet vocals. This is modern day romanticism set to music with old-fashioned values. That combination works very well for the vocalist and I can see a huge potential for cross-pollination into several radio ready areas.
Tracks 1-3 hold you steady with their hypnotic beats and that sensual soft voice of FEMI that cries out for your attention through the wall of music around her. By the time you get to “I Want You”, you realize the potential for repetition may start setting in with that funky bass line; however, some real nice brass arrives in between the vocals and other instrumentation to keep it all interesting and change the flow.
This is a solid EP and I think this artist has enormous talent and could easily branch out musically, expand upon the concrete foundation laid down here on Sweet Water Soul, and become an artist that is on everyone’s play list.
Keith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck
