Cuddling in Winter

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i still smile when you come around.

Review :Blood Orange - Negro Swan
A domino recording release
styles: Rnb,rap,electronic,jazz,dream pop
Similar to : Frank Ocean,Sade,Eryka Badu,Prince,

by Kagiso Kwenda

Negro Swan is about everything from sexual identity,belonging,self expression and the choice one must make in affirming those choices; of being aware of the difficulty a community that one comes from puts constrictions on ones being. It's also about being black in America and the experiences of that existence; the deteriorating environment we have, urban survival, racial strive, togetherness as human beings, isolation in the midst of chaos, calling out white supremacy and the pain it causes. Hope for a brighter future and acceptance for all that is human.

The theme which is sawed through the album is family and love; who is a family ? what is love and how does one come to term with it? the conclusion the albums arrive at is a symbiotic relationship between family and love! love and family-almost symmetric. With regards to love and coming to terms with it, it's a matter of self-acceptance, striving with almost everything you have looking at oneself and being honest with the reflection one gets. But the style of the album is conversational, a technique which is applied through the album, an allusion to the situation the USA faces -a need for a conversation.

there are "woke" moments in the album like:
I got to see you live for more You said it before You wish I'd seen the saint you were before Your skin's a flag that shines for us all You said it before The brown that shines and lights your darkest thoughts
and this one from Charcoal baby :
No one wants to be the odd one out at times
No one wants to be the negro swan
Can you break sometimes? (sometimes) Can you break sometimes? (sometimes, oh)
Charcoal make it start and make me liked at times
Lick me till it cleans all of the world
Can you break sometimes? (sometimes)
Can you break sometimes? (sometimes)
from the current state of politics in the USA and the world, there is no plan for a break in near sight.

The albums is gorgeously written, there are moments of flight and reprisal which are accompanied by the dreamiest beats, influences are taken from rnb, funk, jazz, electronic music,dance,house music; this is the best we have seen Blood Orange.