Little Simz — GREY Area Review
Little Simz wonderfully expresses her confusions, trauma on GREY Area.
Best Tracks : Boss, Selfish, Wounds, 101 FM, Sherbet Sunset
Worst Track : Offence
GREY Area is an LP from Simbiatu Abisola Abiola Ajikawo mainly known by her stage name “Little Simz”. I was introduced to her music by her great contribution to the Gorillaz track Garage Palace.
So going into this record I had semi-high expectations for the record to be good and this album pretty much delivers on par with my expectations. I think this record has a very dark, moody atmosphere. This album likes to reminisce, it shows a lot of anger, pain, trauma and confusion. This atmosphere in my opinion nearly perfectly complements the concept and the idea of this album.
The title of the album to me pretty much describes the concept and the idea of this album. In my belief, the title of this record means being in a confused state of mind. Being in this black and white spot due heavy trauma and pain and trying to continue to grow from it. It manages to express a myriad of emotions in a very short amount of time. Thirty-Five minutes to be exact.
As I said previously in regards to the dark atmosphere of this album. I haven’t talked about the main factor that makes the vibes of this album so moody and that is the production. Though it might not be the most cutting edge album in the production side of things, the truth is it doesn’t have to be. There is a good amount of variety in the album when it comes to its production. I mean there are some hard hitting boom bap tracks like Offence and Boss, there are some soulful more jazz focused tracks like Selfish and Flowers and then there is 101 FM with its grime aesthetic.
Offence is a track where Little Simz has an intense, aggressive delivery backed up with production that emphasize hard hitting kicks and snappy snares and some good lines, my favorite one being “Got my team on deck takin’ out all pawns and my knights got your queen in check-mate.” The immaculate wordplay about chess coupled with the hostile delivery was great. Though I love Offence, In my opinion the track Boss essentially says the same thing and in a better way. It is similar to Offence and has an emphasis on hard hitting boom bap drums. The hook sounds someone recorded Little Simz screaming in an empty room and added distortion to it. Both of these tracks also reminded me of Gorillaz. More specifically the Self-Titled and Demon Days Gorillaz. It is like a great homage to 90’s alternative hip-hop.
Selfish was the point where I started to get the idea of the record. The song in itself is beautiful and enticing. It has great live, soulful instrumentation with a great chorus from Cleo Sol which superbly complements the gentleness of the instrumental. This track shows the toxicity that comes with being obsessed with self-love and self-worth. It shows to me that Little Simz is a victim of her own ways. Her infatuation with self-love. Her “Heritage Ego’’ especially doesn’t get rid of her self-servicing ways. I find that hilarious and sympathetic that she says that her selfish ways do not bother her and after that Cleo Sol sings in the chorus that she can’t sleep and she feels that she is in denial about her selfish ways. She clearly seems bothered by this judging from the chorus. Combining all of the things that are great about this track, this is one of my favorite tracks of the record.
Wounds is an incredible song. Just like Selfish, it has live instrumentation. It features this cold and rough chorus from Chronixx about from what I see the large dependency on guns or any harmful weapons in lower class areas and paranoia and the anxiety that comes from it. The production on this track is phenomenal. It sounds so cold and evil. The sound of this song tells you that the song won’t have a happy ending and it doesn’t. The third verse of the song details Little Simz friend being shot by another one of his friends adding that extra gunpowder to the explosive punch of an ending. The song is a great window for the outsiders to look at the struggles of growing up in the ghetto.
101 FM is an awesome track. The production sounds very video gamey and I absolutely loved that. Subject matter wise it is Little Simz reminiscing about spending time with her day one friends when they were in the gutter and the happy moments they had back in the day. The track has this great nostalgia that covers its not so complex subject matter. That coupled with the beat makes this track in my opinion the most casual listening track on the record. Mostly due to its subject matter not being as complicated as Sherbet Sunset, Wounds and Selfish. There is a big contrast if you compare this track to Wounds. In Wounds, you can hear a sense of pain and trauma in Little Simz voice. It is like she is revisiting a place she does not wanna go. The contrast between these tracks to me add so much to the concept of the record.
Sherbet Sunset is another track that is really good. It is attached to an incredible soothing, relaxing production. The songwriting of this track takes it to the next level. The way the track talks about heartbreak with so much dejection and disappointment just makes you feel a lot sympathy for her.
The one major downside of this record though is that it doesn’t have a lot of casual listening tracks which hurts the overall replay value of the record. The only track I feel like the tracks that are good for casual listening are 101 FM and Venom to a certain extent. Other than that, there are no tracks that in my personal opinion offer any casual listening value.
GREY Area is an album with a simple yet an effective concept that has been executed with great precision of cohesion. The worst track on the album Offence in my opinion is not even that bad of a track. That shows you the quality of the record.
Final Rating : 8.5/10.
