Davido’s fixation with time peaks on new album

The Nigerian popstar, who is reputed among Afrobeats’ first rank, has always gotten ahead by cleaving to flashier themes. That is largely what we get on the 17-track Timeless, released to instant and resounding commercial resonance, and fully supported by an elite guest list that includes Asake and The Cavemen, Angélique Kidjo and Focalistic, among others.

Across significant stretches, Davido’s signature raspy vocals coast gleefully over taut instrumentation that organises itself around a mixture of varied genres, such as strokes of Afrobeats (‘Over Dem’, ‘Kante’), elements of amapiano (‘Champion Sound’, ‘Unavailable’), dancehall (‘Bop’, ‘Picasso’), and even indigenous percussive configurations that capture a sort of neo-highlife (‘Na Money’).

Since the new LP has arrived at a period when Davido is still grappling with fresh loss, particularly the death of his three-year-old son in late October, we can’t help consuming the work with one ear open for traces of grief, or musical meditations implying that.

Somewhere buried in the ecstatic whirlwind of party-starting anthems that also probe the idea of time, it is precisely on ‘LCND (Legends Can Never Die)’ that we find this pain. The record – sheathed in burning chants that mirror raw anguish, and violin strings that summon sensations of sorrow – is a divine and haunting tribute to the dearly departed while maintaining one’s will to live.

Davido sings:

Make I tell you something
Life is not fair
Lost many of my guys
But I thank God I still dey here
Oh yeah
And I know say you dey watch me from up there
I no go lie say e weak me
But I stay strong and I stay fit.

The brilliance of this tune, and indeed the album’s strong overall appeal, is embedded in the way it offers another side to its author’s voice, especially when he broods over existential questions, and how naturally he inspires solidarity by including us in his journey to redemption. Without naming names or citing specific cases, Davido manages to work up something deeply personal. The result is empathy towards the artist.

Pop by its very nature is fugacious. Only a handful of songs bearing this label last long enough to become classics. The rest can only cling to occasional gasps of nostalgia. Davido himself is guilty of pop offerings that can hardly be described as timeless. Even on this album, the majority of cuts adhere to the in-vogue rhythms of today. And yet, norms cannot exist without exceptions, particularly for someone who is wearing a heavy heart. ‘LCND’ is without debate exceptional, and likely the musician’s strongest entry to date for a song that can stand the test of time.

In its own way, Timeless feels like the conclusion of something – a farewell. And seeing that farewells often serve as a portal to the immortal, how legacy is cemented, I suspect that we are witnessing Davido’s final dot to Afrobeats. Whether it sits at the base of an exclamation mark or a question mark is an entirely separate riddle.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkHTd2kCcj8 autoplay:0]

Artist: Davido
Album: Timeless
Label: Columbia Records
Year: 2023