ASA : Beautiful Imperfection (Naive)

Mar 27 2011 by Paul Cole, Sunday Mercury

SHE was teased because of her deep voice when she was a child – and told she wasn’t wanted in the choir.

Thank God, then, that Bukola Elemide didn’t give up. Born in Paris to Nigerian parents, she locked herself in her bedroom and played imaginary gigs to imaginary audiences, all the while honing her skiils.

Besides, there was her dad’s record collection to get lost in, an eclectic mix in which Marvin Gaye rubbed shoulders with Fela Kuti, Bob Marley, Aretha Franklin and Sunny Ade.

Growing up in Lagos and Paris, Asa – as she’s now known – recalls: “I just wanted to sing. I preferred singing to talking, improvising endlessly until my mother made me stop.

“When I was a teenager I was very shy because people made fun of me. People didn’t understand my low-pitched deep voice, and the choirs didn’t want anything to do with me.”

In the end, she appeared on a radio talent show and never looked back.

Next week Asa releases her sophomore set Beautiful Imperfection, and it’s very different from her 2007 debut album, in which she sought to address the social ills of the world.

“It reflected my state of mind then,” says Asa. “I had to talk about social and political issues. This time, I wanted to create something that would help people come out of sad moods and feel uplifted.”

The result is an album that offers everything from breezy pop to Nigerian jazz-folk. There are reggae rhythms, hip-hop beats, late night sophistication, old school soul, rock and roll on the side.

Be My Man is the obvious single, a sassy, brassy nod to the 1960s, but a love song at heart. It’s retro but fresh, a trick Asa pulls off more than once in the setlist. OK OK is jangly pop with a Louisiana undercurrent.

Bimpé, sung in the Yoruba tongue, opens simply in Jack Johnson style before acquiring a contemporary hip-hop crunch. Both Why Can’t We and Maybe have a hint of Bob Marley.

Dreamer Girl is an easy listen rather than glib easy listening; Baby Gone, Questions and Oré are subtle ballads; Broda Olé is given just a flavour of country music to add feelgood factor.

Best, however, is The Way I Feel which eases in as late-night jazz, builds into a torch song and then turns lights the blues touch paper before exploding in unashamed drama. A virtuoso performance. PC