ALA.NI – ACCA

ALA.NI brings starlet presence to misconceived miscellanies in her sophomore album ACCA, resulting in aural sensation that keeps you well fed.

After proving her worth with the suave, tin-can radio approach on her 2017 debut, You & I, this time around she has an all new spunk that makes ACCA sound totally fresh and even more unique. It’s a standalone album that seeks individual success and so on. The passive yet poignant femininity, with no stark thrusts at political pity. The artistic choice to CAPITALIZE EVERY WORD ON THE ALBUM. She has become more in tune with herself in the three years between releases, and found what she really wants to convey as an artist. For that reason, these songs seem to be more genuine and thus important. ACCA is a ceremonious post-a-cappella album with a neo-doowop procession of mystic badass vibrations; a true expose on what the voice is capable of, and how strong a foundation it lays.

ACCA don’t play around, clocking out at a breezy 28 mins. It’s oddly un-silly for a cappella (which is rare for that kind of music, let’s admit it; it’s pitch piss poor and uneasily stomached) and quite successful on a technical level, with the demeanor being so laser-focused that it is received with unadulterated sincerity. There are so many executed layers moving around at a time that the vocals fit as respective instruments in your brain, and your ear instantly accepts the intense flavor of human contact. On the other hand, by using the human voice most, she strikes a primitive connection in the listener (momma’s got you). You’re actually only hearing about three different outlets at a time, and the primality of that realization gives off a sense of Punk. Which would come to make perfect sense why the Godfather himself, Iggy Pop, lends his voice, providing an excellent and bombastic bass to ALA.NI’s vocal spectrum, which is what led me to this album in the first place, and proves that the emotion emitted from ACCA is infectious to any ear. The decision to use Iggy as a recurring feature (whether it be speaking French-ish or placing careful vocals) brings this entirely unseen element in the music to glorious light, and the choice is also reflective of ALA.NI’s character and style, making her full intentions for this work known.

The most vibrant of these songs is “BITCH” which perfectly reveals the idea of this release as a whole. I never thought I’d hear a song of that title given ALA.NI’s debut, but here we are, and I like what I see. The subject matter is lovely only in the modern sense, with lyrics like, “Let me be your bitch/Tell me I’m your bitch” that oddly come across with contentment and clarity to a listener who knows nothing about the black woman’s sex toil. It ends with Iggy saying “ALA.NI stop bein’ such a bitch” and I flashback to the geezer’s Metallic KO.

The classic moonlit Disney sonatas that gained ALA.NI notoriety in the first place still exist, but they feel more original here, like she’s not set out after anything but her own conscience. There are also pieces that are rather choral. At some points the sound resembles some sort of Nordic Christian choir music. It feels out of any specific times, but rather a conglomeration of medieval fantasy opera. ACCA offers a world of cultural renaissance. Though ALA.NI is English, and most of the artistic appeal is French, this album is somehow American in its final product. It appeals to the modern R&B, flirting with what makes the charts but not giving them the time of day (rightfully so, I hear that Billboard is a rapist). It’s more affectionate than the stuff I hear like it, the unique elements being what projects this album above what is coming from R&B America.

ACCA brings the auxiliary, the everyday, and puts it in the limelight scope for your convenience and desired examination. Yet I wouldn’t call this a minimalist album, because ACCA is an array of vocal performance that tallies out at complete orchestra. It’s rich in melodic nutrients and fortified with natural expression, a mosaic of independent lines that adds up to something great and powerful: a picture of the world’s whisper.

ALA.NI
ACCA
[A+LSO]