Album Review: Mura Masa – Mura Masa
2 min read
In December 2016, Mura Masa announced a follow up to his EP, with a full length album entitled To Fall Out of Love To. Over half a year later, he’s released his now self-titled album, Mura Masa.
Changing the title to his alias feels purposeful rather than through artistic whim – unsurprising, since he’s described his sound as coming from ‘geographical isolation.’ It’s natural for anyone who’s cut off to dwell on memories and self reflection, which he’s translated perfectly through his music on this very personal album.
Mura Masa is a concoction of attraction, loneliness, drugs, dancing, sex, and all things you could blame on love. Beginning with Messy Love, bubbling noises in the background induce connotations of brewing potions and science lessons.
This particular theme is continued with Nuggets ft. Bonzai, where the intro (sampled from Shots of Awe’s Love is a Drug) states that ‘love has been distilled’ and ‘no different than addiction to cocaine,’ giving us a bleak outlook. Reading into the outro, we’re warned that akin to drugs, after the high from love is an inescapable comedown.
Love$ick, revamped for the album and now featuring A$AP Rocky, carries on the addiction with repetitions of ‘I need you […] I want you.’ Whilst a touch co-dependent, these tracks, and the majority of others, tend to be about all-consuming love, making them unsuitable for the original album title.
There are a few, however, which would have been perfect. The lyrics alone for Give Me The Ground are very bitter, but the voice delivering them is only exhausted. Mura Masa breaks from his usual style to really slow this down, as he also does with Second 2 None ft. Christine and the Queens, Blu ft. Damon Albarn, and Helpline . The latter is a desperate plea for help from a man with nothing left.
The melancholy mix of love and despair demands your attention. Easy to relate to, perfect to dance to (for slow dancers and grinders alike), this album is a unique experience you should treat your eardrums to.
