ALBUM TITLE – Fi Mi Le
LEAD SINGLE – Fi Mi Le
PRODUCTION – Dr. Frabz, DJ Sose, Kas
GUEST ARTISTES – 2 Face Idibia, Bez, D’Banj, Iceprince, M.I., Nneka, Sir Shina Peters
RECORD LABEL/DISTRIBUTION – Kas Beats Entertainment/Evans Music
Have you ever judged a book by its cover and when you eventually read it, it turned out your prejudice was spot on? Have you ever listened to a singer’s one hit song and felt you could tell exactly how the rest of his album will sound and when you did listen eventually, it turns out your jaundice was justified?
Sometime at the beginning of the year, when little-known Kas’ club smash Fi Mi Le caused the foundation of the club I was chilling in at the time to shake, I already knew Kas’ debut album will be the type you enjoy best when the lights are turned low, the music is turned up, and when more than one of your vital senses have been temporarily incapacitated by alcohol, or something stronger. I wasn’t wrong.
Standard party theme: check, insanely infectious chorus: check, painfully meaningless lyrics: double check, the fact that Fi Mi Lebecame such a big hit is further confirmation that Nigerians see music as a source of respite from their daily struggles first; depth is only secondary. A skilled producer in his own right, Kas marries elements of indigenous music – the rhythm and the drums, elements of House music – the booming baseline and pitch-shifted vocals, and mixes all that with the synthesized, over-produced feel of electronic dance music. This is a musical union Kas consummates on this entire project over and over again, just in varying proportions. On E Je Ka Jo and Me I Go Love, traditional drums take the centre stage, while If You Wind for Me is heavily-influenced by House music, a movement the UK resident is very familiar with. With this musical hybrid, Kas has opened up his own lane of music and what’s more impressive about this fusion is that it doesn’t feel forced or accidental, you get the feeling every drum pattern is deliberate, every adlib was intentional and every progression was planned.
This album is all about letting lose and letting go, and strangely, letting God. Err… yes, you ‘read’ me right, there’s a quasi-gospel song to be found here too, it’s titled I Love Jesus. That’s just wrong. What’s more, the song precedes the Hennessey Artistry Search theme song of the year Like A Bottle, of all songs. What the Almighty is doing on album dedicated to celebrating every imaginable vice of the night known to mankind beats me, honestly. Rather predictably it’s at times like these that Fi Mi Le is unlistenable, the times Kas tries to take this whole singing business a little too seriously. On Secret Lover (Pt. 1) he turns the autotune down and attempts to belt a mid-tempo love song reminiscent of the 70’s and on I’m Not Impressed Kas actually makes a feeble attempt at R&B. In hindsight, I guess he picked the right title for the latter song. Kas is no singer, his paper-thin tenor voice gets irritating when it’s not enhanced digitally and his lyrics make as much sense as Victor Ikpeba’s soccer analysis on match day.
With the country, and indeed the rest of the world, on the eve of the holiday celebrations, Fi Mi Le couldn’t have come at a better time of the year. With its celebratory themes and boisterous instrumentals, Fi Mi Le will sound like the composition of a stress-relieving genius in December. However, after the bottles have become as empty as the dance floors in January, Fi Mi Le will become an average album albeit one from a creative Nigerian who possesses the ability to concoct a party jam so hard, it could wake the dead up just to bust a move.
However, regardless of your state of sobriety, you can’t help but to notice that Fi Mi Le would have still been the same album, if not a slightly better one, if Kas hadn’t bothered to utter a single word on it at all.
ALBUM RATING – 3/5
Coiled from NET (Nigerian Entertainment Today) http://www.thenetng.com/
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