LaSauce takes it slow on Broken Lipstick

6 Dec 2017 - 15:10

Published under the Creative Commons Licence

South African singer LaSauce released her debut album Broken Lipstick last week. After listening to the offering for the first time, a quote from Slowness, a book by Milan Kundera, came to mind: “The degree of slowness is directly proportional to the intensity of memory; the degree of speed is directly proportional to the intensity of forgetting.”

LaSauce uses slowness to make Broken Lipstick memorable.

Based on this philosphy, the listener is compelled to think that LaSauce walked into the studio and asked the engineer that the sound of the album should unconsciously border on existentialism, turn-up and heartbreak. But the way in which the heartbreak element is addressed in the trajectory of the songs is unusual.

In ‘Messed Up’ featuring Lisa, LaSauce talks about dumping a cheating boyfriend, but in the next song, ‘Ncese’, the singer dramatically twists events when she affirms her undying love for her man even though he mistreats her. In ‘Won’t Let You’, LaSauce refutes the idea that she is not beautiful and asserts that she knows herself. She could have stayed away when he initially wronged her.

The sporadic nature of her relationship is well detailed. At one point LaSauce claims her power as an independent woman in ‘Shine’, featuring Davido and Emtee. This might be giving her too much credit because she professes love for the man in a remix of ‘Number One’ by Gang of Instrumentals. It looks like artists have an unwritten rule where they record slowed-down versions of an already existing song with the thrust of giving it a better feel. Cassper Nyovest did it in the remake of Destiny and kwaito artists built a genre by slowing down European house music in the 1990s. Sampling can be both good and bad and LaSauce could have benefited if she made 'Number One' an entirely new song without using a hook familiar to audiences.

Breaking away from the motif of make-up and break-up, in ‘Mama’, LaSauce shows appreciation for her mother who, despite financial difficulties and personal hardships, always made ends meet.

Songs such as 'Coolerbag', 'Party' and 'How It Is' can be danced to without making you contemplate the current state of the romantic relationship you're in, owing to their upbeat tempo. The last few songs in the album are a relief from the lento delivery.

While the majority of the album constantly teeters between love and heartbreak, it is difficult to move past how slow LaSauce sings. If you don’t have a taste for music that sounds like the equivalent of watching paint dry, then Broken Lipstick is not an album you would spend time listening to. At the same time, the slow tempo makes the lyrics easy to remember. This is true in the case of 'I Do' featuring label mate Amanda Black.

The beat production, although crisp with a signature rap sound, has unpredictable tempo changes that could disorient the most skilled dancer. The quality is top-tier even though it is sometimes difficult to ignore LaSauce’s nasal screech that pierces the ears when she inundates the listener.