NAO

NAO – Saturn (2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 47:01 minutes | 517 MB | Genre: Soul, R&B
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Records Label

Following two well received EPs (So Good in 2014 and February 15 in 2015), Neo Jessica Joshua, alias Nao, released a promising first album in the summer of 2016, For All We Know. A Nottingham native who settled in East London early on, she put her high-flying soul sound into dubstep, funk, pop and R&B. Two years later, on Saturn, she applies the same formula – and while she’s not the only one to offer this particular mixture, she is doing so with a certain originality. Beneath the surging currents of slightly futuristic, visceral pop, the young Brit shows off her sensual, almost puckish, voice. Jarvis Cocker’s former backing singer, who made her name on Disclosure’s Superego, has made a second multifaceted album, which digs deep into classical soul as much as it does into nu-soul or electronic R&B. With scraps of West African rhythms ( Drive & Disconnect), sensual R&B (Curiosity), catchy electro pop (If You Ever written with Alex Crossan AKA Mura Masa) and light soul (Make It Out Alive with the Californian SiR), Nao elegantly picks her way through the whole field of contemporary groove.  – Max Dembo

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Nao – And Then Life Was Beautiful (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:13 minutes | 931 MB | Genre: R&B, Soul
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © RCA Records Label

No sooner had lockdown begun than the musical responses came. Over the last 18 months, we’ve had everything from heartstring-tugging fundraising tributes to essential workers, to Eminem dutifully comparing himself to coronavirus, to the miserable sound of Van Morrison metaphorically marching through London with a homemade placard lambasting Chris Whitty. It’s a phenomenon that shows no signs of abating, and why would it? A huge proportion of the new albums released in 2021 will have been made during the pandemic, and it would take a pretty superhuman effort to avoid the circumstances of their creation seeping into their contents.

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