Raves Review: Is “Love, Damini” Burna Boy’s Worst Album Yet?
Updated: Aug 11, 2022
Grammy-winning Nigerian musician Burna Boy's debut album was published about ten years ago, but it has only been in the last few years that he has gained widespread acclaim for his fusion of Afrobeats, dancehall, rap, and R&B. He a couple of weeks ago his latest album “Love, Damini” was released and here’s what we think.
From the first song on Burna Boy's third studio album, Love, Damini, you can feel the great production present. If you doubt it you will be convinced by the end of the song with J-Hus, ‘Cloak and Dagger’. J-Hus’ feature itself is really a standout one but it does the job fine. The production cohesion is very good and songs flow from one to the other smoothly.
Burna’s vocals are amazing and distinct as usual except there’s a place on Jagele in the beginning where he sounds like he’s straining on the higher notes though that may have just been a creative decision because it is a sad one about a child with no parents - and it hits hard.
Kilometer and Last Last are definitely the great singles I’ve been waiting to listen to because I stayed away from listening to them for so long and I’m not sure why. I think something about Burna Boy (much like Kendrick Lamar) makes me only want to listen to his album experiences - I don’t just want to hear a throwaway song - I want the whole experience. ‘Last Last’ is quite emotionally stimulating and relatable in these times.
The sampling of Squid Game’s ‘Red Light Green Light’ on the song with Victony is simply brilliant. Though I found it slightly anticlimactic when it ended up being just another romantic hookup song.
The album also contains some standout features as well. Blxst is amazing, I was shocked, even though it was a relatively simple afrobeat. Kehlani was less believable but also pulled through well enough. Ed Sheeran is just eating these Afrobeats at this point. Khalid is really impressive considering I don’t think I’ve heard him in an Afro style beat since Black Panther and I’m not even sure if that counts but he has one of the best features and my favorite feature on the album.