New York, NY (Top40 Charts) British singer/songwriter/guitarist Lianne La Havas' self-titled album, her first since 2015's Grammy-nominated Blood, is available today, July 17, 2020, on Nonesuch in the US. La Havas celebrates by joining NPR
Music for its Live Listening Party series today at 2pm ET. She will participate in a video Q&A with the NPR team before the entire album is streamed live on YouTube while fans are able to chat in real time.
"Lianne has really come into her own and defined herself so beautifully," says NPR's Ann Powers on today's All Songs Considered. "She can go from that really tonally rich, exploratory style to a more pop style in a heartbeat. And I love that."
"Angelic voice, next-level guitar skills, and relatable songs," says Vogue. "With uplifting and renewed energy strung throughout—[Lianne La Havas] is a much-needed soothing soundtrack in a stressful time of loss, racial tension, and self-isolation."
"Lianne La Havas is a jazzy, soulful, understated account of breakup and recovery," exclaims the Daily Telegraph in a four-star review, "that shimmers like a gorgeous summer groove and lets La Havas's tender singing and cryptic lyrics carry the bittersweet emotion."
"The English singer-songwriter's third album may have taken five years to arrive," says the San Francisco Chronicle, "but its soulful take on the life cycle of a relationship is timeless."
The eleven tracks on Lianne La Havas - nine original songs and an interlude plus a cover of Radiohead's "Weird Fishes"- span the arc of a love affair, one that brought growth and newfound confidence. "This is my first completely self-produced album with my own band. I got my own way with everything—all the decisions that you hear on this album were mine," she says. "I'm a woman now, so I'm less shy and timid about saying certain things. And there's no right or wrong when it's your record, so I was very much embracing that fact, as well."
She continues. "I've tapped into the best and worst parts of me and while I didn't expect this to be the direction of my new music, it's my reality and it's driven by emotion. I dare say that this is the closest I've gotten to a pure expression so far. If you'd never heard me before, I'd be happy to say, 'This is me. This is who I am.'"
Blood was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Urban Contemporary Album. It received tremendous critical praise, with the New York Times saying "There are cross-currents of rhythm and harmony, of melancholy and bliss, of romance and self-determination, of playfulness and purpose. But what comes across first is the sheer grace of her voice. It can be a breathy purr, a lilting tease, a liquid confession or a torchy declaration." Pigeons and Planes said, "In the modern world of artificial pop and electronically charged hits, Lianne La Havas brings life. Combining jazzy chord progressions, funky bass lines, and sweet, soulful vocals, (she) makes the kind of music that transcends current fads."
Her debut album, Is Your Love Big Enough? (2012), received similar acclaim, with the Associated Press calling it "not just one of the year's best debuts, but one of the year's best albums." Among her many other accolades, La Havas has been nominated for the Mercury
Music Prize, the Ivor Novello, Brits, and MOBOs.
La Havas recently performed an NPR Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, which has received more than 750,000 views on YouTube alone since premiering in May. She performed the Lianne La Havas track "
Bittersweet" on the BBC's Live at Home on Later ... with Jools Holland. She and her band also played London's Barbican with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jules Buckley in February; a video of their performance of "
Bittersweet" may be seen here. La Havas has in recent years supported Coldplay on an international stadium tour, headlined Brixton Academy, and played the Afropunk Festival in New York. While her current tour plans have been postponed due to the pandemic, she performed a solo show at London's Roundhouse earlier this week, which was live streamed around the world.
