Like a penny tossed into the pool of our collective subconscious, Sophia Danais highly-anticipated Wishing Well EP drops and immediately begins making waves.
Handpicked by two-time Grammy-winning Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»producer Chin Injeti to join his stable of artists at The Hastings Set, Danai, like her album, is hard to pin. A genre-bending cocktail of vintage soul, a splash of reggae, and a twist of 007, youre left with nine seductive songs that duck around corners and beg to be followed.
I still remember when Sophia and her father came to the studio lugging a huge Electone organ to play me songs, Injeti wrote, by way of introduction, to his Facebook followers last week. Of course I was [so] instantly sold by the maturity of her songwriting and her beautiful voice, that we started working right away.
With co-production by LA powerhouse and two-time Grammy winner DJ Khalil, as well as DJ mastermind Skratch Bastid,Wishing Well blends an eclectic mix of sounds, eras and instruments into a well-stacked summer jukebox.
The result of a solid year of songwriting and collaborating for Danai, Wishing Well also brings features by hip-hop legend Talib Kweli, acclaimed Canadian emcee Shad and guitar master Mark Whitfield.
As multi-faceted as she is tall (the singer is almost 6), Danai made appearances in WE last year as a for Lifetime Collective, and is the hands, eyes and ears behind her self-published magazine, also entitled Wishing Well.
Showcasing an eclectic mix of what inspires her, each magazine issue coincides with a newly released song. A recent issue, Money, ties in with and is our sunny days song of the album.
If I had money, Id be so fly. Id have a gold cummerbund and a gold bow tie. A parrot on my shoulder repeatin my lines, just makin sure that you heard me right, the slow jam slinks along.
Falling, featuring Shad (with one of the only raps weve heard to reference casserole), triggers so many nostalgic references its impossible to classify what, exactly, it reminds us of.
The song begins cheekily reminiscent of Snow Whites Im Wishing (minus the 30s falsetto). But by the chorus it could also be the opening credit theme to any B&W neighbourhood sitcom, rolling as the camera pans over perfectly mowed lawns and waving housewives in neatly pressed skirts. Shad completes the nuclear family feel, evoking thoughts of collars buttoned to the top with every word pronounced just-so.
By The End, Kweli is scorching the last track of the album with a rap so tight, that, if you flipped the disc over, youd see his fingerprint burned into it at the 26-minute mark.
High-profile studio buddies aside, what binds all the bricks together in this Wishing Well is Danai's velvety smooth vocals and thought-provoking lyrics.
You can get your digital fingerprints all over Wishing Well on , , and . Cost: approximately $8.
