Tiwa Savage: RED Album Review

Tiwa Savage RED Album Review

ARTISTE: TIWA SAVAGE

ALBUM: R.E.D

LABEL: MAVIN RECORDS. 323 ENTERTAINMENT

RELEASED: DECEMBER 2015

I had no plans to write a review for Tiwa Savage’s R.E.D album but this is what happens when you start listening to it for too long. Tiwa Savage announced the release of her sophomore album late in the year 2015 after she was away for a while to go attend to some mummy duties, it came as a surprise and within days of the announcement, the album dropped for streaming, then sales and finally for free downloads. All these was a surprise to all but after listening, I understand why she and her team made the decision to give out the album for free, R.E.D is a 16 track compilation that I feel was meant to drop as an EP or some compilation tape.

The album opens with Adura that sounds like a sample off one of those Ebenezer Obey songs, who doesn’t love to pray to God? One of the good songs on the album, love the sax and drums. African Waist isn’t exactly great, but I watched the video some days ago and I liked it, colorful and lovely attires. Production on the song has the electro feel to it with Don Jazzy providing his usual styled hooks and adlibs. Standing Ovation is next featuring Olamide and I liked this song after several plays and watching the video. Olamide brought his much needed street vibe on this one and Tiwa was able to pull through too, feels like an Olamide song though. It’s going to rock the airwaves, clubs and it’s good for some shoki.

Rewind produced by Baby Fresh has Tiwa singing in pidgin and Igbo, Don Jazzy doing back up, she showed off a bit of her vocals here. If I Start To Talk features her fellow Mavin Artist Dr Sid, recounting God’s blessings, Make Time features Iceberg Slim, they both had a good outing on her debut album Once Upon A Time, not so bad on this one. Iceberg with a rap verse and Tiwa carries on with her singing, the second track where she’s actually singing. Bang Bang is next, repetitive lyrics, slow paced with a switch up on the beat towards the last few seconds.

Love Me Hard features 2Face and luckily they were able to make it work. I’ve learned to cut 2Face some slack; he’s paid his dues in the industry so it’s okay if he doesn’t exactly blow us away with his verses anymore. The track has a reggae vibe to it, production is good and vocals are clear.

Before Nko features another Mavin artist D’Prince with his funny way of singing his verses/songs, isn’t exactly a blow your mind away song, same as We Don’t Give A Damn, Kolobi even though she meant well on the track. Basically, a prayer for women wanting kids, but somehow the lyrics changed the song totally I wasn’t sure what she was singing about anymore. She features Jamaica’s dancehall and reggae artiste Busy Signal on the remix to her previously released Key To The City and he did a pretty good job, not so much of a switch up on the production end though. On Say It, Tiwa is singing and reminding us she can actually sing. My Darlin’ is next, one of the singles released a while ago, got airplay and has a nice video to it. Go Down featuring Reekado Banks is one of my favorites off the album, on first listen without looking at the player he sounded like Wande Coal to me, and I think he actually deserved the controversial Next Rated Headies Award, he’s someone to look out for and he comes through on his features. This song feels like a remix to Get Low which was one of the tracks on Tiwa Savage’s debut album but with an up-tempo switch to it.

She closes the album with the Birthday track which should be rated 18+, it reminds me of the very controversial Wanted track and I see her doing a risqué video for it just like Wanted, of course Don Jazzy on the beat and back up.

Though the album had production credits from all the producers signed to Mavin Records, it was executive produced by Don Jazzy, they were able to balance the sounds, fusion of instruments, giving it an African vibe and the experiment came out good. R.E.D however cannot be compared to Tiwa’s debut Once Upon A Time production and lyrics wise. This album wasn’t well thought out in the lyrical department, repetitive and lazy, feels like an experiment just for the Nigerian market and with working with just specific producers, they were probably trying to figure out what would fit the market after the year break. I expect that Ms Savage and her team will get together real soon and release that well thought out album she has in store for us, R.E.D was just to whet our appetite, and we want the main dish already!