Guest Review: Bowden On La Havas

Eyewear's Music Critic Lydia Bowden On Lianne La Havas

I can’t have an ice-cream without thinking about Lianne La Havas. Why? Because I swear she sings that instead of ‘I scream’ in her debut single ‘Is Your Love Big Enough?’- and of course it isn’t ice-cream- but La Havas’ voice sounds so much like flowing caramel, if there was such a thing, so I guess that connotation with ice-cream is fair enough on my part.

Seriously though, this girl’s voice is deliciously smooth. Not only that, but even the music sounds just as sweet. Insisting on playing her own highly strapped guitar, La Havas gives off this dreamlike effect through her music with random scales on guitar and experimental notes with her husky voice.

A Londoner- part Greek, part Jamaican- and yet another artist having emerged from Later…with Jools Holland, La Havas is something like Corinne Bailey Rae, but it’s something much more refreshing , something a little more honest and stylish from this young 22 year old.

It’s this husky voice that gets people going. Who doesn’t like a strong female vocalist who discards singing about clubbing and partying, but instead, sings soulfully and from their broken heart? Adele does it and now does La Havas.

The thing I admire most about La Havas is her quirky humour. In ‘Age’ she talks about her relationship with an older man, asking herself ‘Why do I love him?’ and ultimately that, ‘I like younger men’. What’s great is that you’d expect some kind of thoughtful piano solo, but La Havas keeps it simple and almost happy with two note pick of her electric guitar; turning the song into a cheerful anecdote of a bad relationship. And this is what makes you really love her- she’s laughing at her sad times- and making bloody good music at the same time.

However there has to be one or two songs that strip everything back to where the talent lies and this one is called ‘Lost and Found’ and is one of my favourites on the album. Just a piano, one or two short strums of the guitar and the voice. Even with its slow beat, this is a catchy one and you’ll find yourself humming the tune for the rest of the day. ‘No Room for Doubt’ features American folk singer Willy Mason, who’s voice blends wonderfully with La Havas’ into a continual hypnotic chant of the line ‘We all make mistakes, we do’.

Some songs get away though, and fall into the group that’ll never be played again- until you find them in a few years time of course. However, something tells me this album will keep popping up and there will be no escaping the dulcet tones of La Havas, so grab her album and get to know her before you miss out on all the fuss.

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and Silence of the Lambs . I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise

E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

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