Asa's Lucid: A roller coaster of love and Yoruba happiness

22 Oct 2019 - 17:43

Published under the Creative Commons Licence

Nigerian singer Asa is back from a five-year hiatus with the release of her fourth studio album Lucid.

Aṣa's Lucid comes four years after her last studio release.

Just as its name implies, the messages the 14 songs making up the album are inarguably lucid. Asa’s enchanting voice and sonorous guitar are most prominent in ‘You and Me’, a song that reminds us of what she does well: romantic feeling embedded in lyrical songwriting. It tells of the willingness of a lover to show her partner the world of love.

The heart formerly enmeshed in a deluge of romance and affection is broken in 'Torn', a track in which a lover pours out the sad contents of her heart in poetic lines. Love sometimes hurts: when it gets sour, one begins to “walk aimlessly to nowhere”, for no one gets the true north of their mind when lost in the labyrinth of love’s complexities. Indeed, as she says, “There is no refund for a broken heart.” The constant calling of herself a fool lends credence to the claim that when things go amiss in a relationship, the choice to fall in love appears to be a foolish one.

In the same vein, 'Femi Mo', meaning 'Don't Want Me Anymore', comes with lines that describe the broken heart of a lover. Asa does not say what went wrong between her and her lover in a 10-year relationship. She cries in a falling tone, "Okan mi ti wo lule" (My heart has collapsed) and asks why her lover could be so cruel. In spite of this, she wishes that the lover in question didn’t say goodbye because of the good memories they had together.

Asa's heart longs for the presence of her lover in 'My Dear' as she asks hopefully, "Where are you, my dear? My love, hope you get here soon." In the beginning, the song seems to express a sense of longing until it stretches into a change in feeling when she says she’ll find someone else next time because overdue hope breaks the heart. Still, it ends on a hopeful note, as there's a chance that her lover will get to her soon.

The beauty of the Yoruba culture of southwestern Nigeria is portrayed in 'Happy People'. Asa is fond of this theme, just as in 'Eyo' off her 2014 album Bed of Stone. The Yoruba are known for attending parties in colourful ankara attire. She calls them happy people, as children of the sun – a metaphorical disposition that holds meaning to the Yoruba.