Now most people will most likely recognise Lisa Maffia for coming second to the irritating Kirsty Gallagher in the most recent installment of "The Games". However, a couple of years ago, she was more famous for being the first lady of the garage collective "So Solid Crew" who had just went solo as an urban star in her own right.
Unfortunately, her solo effort failed to set the world alight - which is a shame, as her first single release "All Over" was absolutely fantastic! Similar to her So Solid "brothers", Romeo and Harvey, her solo projects were much hyped but then virtually ignored once they actually hit the charts.
Lisa has concocted an album using a variety of music styles - it embraces first and foremost a more r & b style than you would expect from someone who made her name in garage music (similarly, it has been pointed out, to Craig David and Ms Dynamite who also opted to go in an r & b direction with their albums). However, I find generally that the crossover between r & b and garage is actually fairly minimal due to a similarity in their style so to me r & b seems a logical progression for a garage star. And Lisa still manages to retain a garage vibe to her album, due to the appearance of many of her So Solid mates and several tracks with a definite So Solid sound to them.
♪ TRACK LISTING ♪ 1. Swiss Intro 2. All Over 3. Women Of The World 4. Down 5. Wrong Guys 6. So Solid Party 7. JD Interlude 8.
In Love 9. Life 10. City Life 11. Super Freak 12. Always Be Your Angel 13. Out Of My Life 14. Night Crawler 15. Outro (Slowdown Zone)
♪ THE R & B TUNES ♪
Skipping the Intro (not a fan of these things at all), the opening track is the utterly fantastic "All Over", which will instantly make you want to get your ass on the imaginary dancefloor and shake it all around. Rowdy, hot and with a jingling hook which can't fail to get your attention, the song is basically about being out with your girls in a club and having a fantastic time. Lisa isn't a rapper, but the way she sings so quickly reminds me of someone rapping - she fits a hell of a lot of words into one line, yet it sounds much sweeter and more lyrical than a rap. She namedrops designer names - both of clothes (Dior) and champagne (Cristal) - and has adapted a Snoop Dog sample to fit her own name. I'm loathe to use the word "Slammin'" to describe a song (it just doesn't sound right in a scottish accent, I'm afraid!) but if I did use the word, it would definitely apply to this tune!
This is followed by the anthemic "Woman of the World", which consists of more laid back funky r & b and a shout-a-long chorus - a catchy and empowering song aimed at us laydeez. This was apparently released as a single but I've never heard it played on the radio so I assume it failed to set the charts alight. "Down" is more depressing in content, a downbeat tune which is reminscent at times to Brandy's "What about Us?" (in terms of the jumpy and disjointed style of the backing track) in which Lisa sings defeatedly about her general disillusionment with the world but adds "I must keep on going on, to show my daughter I am strong."
She also uses her own life experience in the song "Life", where the laidback style of the song belies the lyrical content - a song about moving on and not being hung up on the past. This mainly deals with her relationship with the father of her daughter Chelsea who abandoned her but came running back when she was famous - she is telling him "don't need you no more, I've got my life, my life is not yours." One of the standout tracks for me, however, is the next track "City Life" - darker r & b, almost hiphop in tone, with an eerie-sounding hook, where Lisa asks "what's wrong with the world today?" and goes on to highlight everything she (and we) think is wrong. She may not offer solutions to the problem, but the questions she poses in the song are highly relevant to just about everyone.
♪ THE GARAGE TUNES ♪
Although I have liked the occasional garage track in the past, I'm not generally a huge fan of the genre, so I am personally glad that the majority of the tracks stayed out of the garage mould. However, there are three tracks which definitely fit this mould, as well as one "Wrong Guys" which has a garage beat to it but sounds more reminscent of eighties pop music at times.
"So Solid Party" is probably the most reminiscent of a So Solid Crew track - fitting given the name of it! However, it is essentially just a less menacing and ultimately less infectious "21 Seconds" - with decidedly less contributors! "Nightcrawler" also possesses the Solid vibe but just doesn't live up to its initial promise. "Out of My Life", repetitive though it is, sounds like a party track which, had it been released when garage was huge, would undoubtedly have been in the top five.
So, all in all, I was not particularly enamoured with the garage tunes on the album.
♪ THE "SWEET" TUNES ♪
These other two tunes could probably be classfied as mid-tempo r & b ballads (if such a thing exists - I'm sure you know what I mean though) but as they are much sweeter in content than the more club-oriented tracks and the ones with darker lyrics, I've decided to give them their own category. The first is "In Love", Lisa's second single release from the album. This is a definite summer song with a tropical vibe complete with Spanish guitars. It contains sweet lyrics and is immensely catchy but Lisa's high vocals sound slightly laboured on the verses, as though she is singing in a key she can barely reach.
The other "Always Be Your Angel" is similar in sound but could have been written in response to the end of the relationship mentioned in "In Love" - the lyrics are far more bittersweet, with Lisa singing that although the man has ended their relationship, she'll always be there for him, even if it's as nothing more than a friend. She finishes the song with the words "always wish you would understand, that don't really want no other man, life is short I'll be wasting time, hanging around for a guy who's not mine." I definitely can empathise with that sentiment, which is probably why I like the song so much!
♪ CONCLUSION ♪
I think Lisa has included a good mix of songs on her album. I would have been happier without the garage tracks, but understand she probably wanted to stay true to her roots. Unlike other pop and r & b divas around (Beyonce or Britney, for example) she's been through tough times - a hard upbringing, a victim of bullying due to her mixed race origins, been a single mother - and she uses aspects of her life and the things she has witnessed growing up on a tough council estate in Battersea to produce an album which contains infectious urban music which actually means something, rather than spending twelve tracks dissing a guy that did her wrong.
I think she proved on this album that she has a lot of talent, both at singing, and at penning a good tune. I would say that only "All Over" would really get you jumping around making a fool of yourself in a club, and the style otherwise is more laidback, but it is definitely worth a listen if you are a fan of singers such as Brandy, Jamelia or Beyonce.
♪♪♪ "FIRST LADY" BY LISA MAFFIA IS AVAILABLE FROM PLAY.COM FOR £5.99, CD WOW FOR £8.75, OR FROM 20P (A BARGAIN!!!) ON AMAZON MARKETPLACE ♪♪♪
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First Lady, the title of Lisa Maffia's debut album, probably refers to her position in the ... more
So Solid Crew--in a recent documentary on the group she was the one who came over as most clued up. However she's yet to reach Ms Dynamite's status of first lady...
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First Lady, the title of Lisa Maffia's debut album, probably refers to her position in the ... more
So Solid Crew--in a recent documentary on the group she was the one who came over as most clued up. However she's yet to reach Ms Dynamite's status of first lady...
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