Laura Mvula Discography Rate - #42 - it's a new dawn it's a new day it's a new life

Welcome to the Laura Mvula Discography Rate. I've been expecting you.

A little on Laura for the uninitiated. (Thanks, Wikipedia.)

Laura Mvula is a British recording artist, songwriter, and composer. A native of Birmingham, Mvula has gained experience as a young member or leader of a cappella, jazz/neo-soul, and gospel groups and choirs. She was classically trained. In 2012, she signed with RCA Records and released an extended play, She, to critical acclaim.

Mvula released her debut studio album, Sing to the Moon (2013), to favorable reviews, and earning two MOBO awards and a Mercury Prize nomination. In 2014, an orchestral re-recording of the album with the Metropole Orkest was released. Her second album, The Dreaming Room (2016), was also received with critical acclaim, and won the Ivor Novello award and garnered a Mercury Prize nomination. Mvula then wrote the music for the 2017 theatre production of Antony & Cleopatra by the Royal Shakespeare Company. While working on her third album, she released the 1/f EP in February 2021. Her third studio album, Pink Noise (2021) was released in July.

In 2018, Mvula received an honorary doctorate of music from her alma mater, Birmingham City University.


Put simply, Laura is one of my favorite artists of all time, and while not the most prolific artist, in the decade she's been releasing music, she has put out some of my favorite albums. A hugely accomplished songwriter and multi instrumentalist, Laura fuses all of her classical and jazz training into some of the most stunning pop sensibilities. We are here to celebrate everything that makes this artist special.​

 

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1. Rate all 53 songs below between 0 and 10. You may use the following decimals: .25, .5, .75, and no others.
2. You may award one song your coveted 11.
3. Don't troll. I'm not particularly worried about that in a discog. rate with a niche artist like Laura, but it must be said. I'm also not afraid of low scores (even if it will be hard for me personally to give them out with her material), but please be justified in your scoring. Any obvious trolling and bombing will be called into question.
4. Commentary is not mandatory but highly encouraged, especially for your 11. I love a good stan moment or a good dragging via commentary. It keeps the write-ups interesting, and gives me an opportunity to shade bad taste!
5. Submit scores via PM to @boombazookajoe by May 18th. If you want to really help a ho out, (the ho is me), open THIS link, go to File >> Make a Copy, and attach your scores and commentary to this handy spreadsheet. You can then send me a direct link to the spreadsheet when you are ready to submit. Note that once you submit your scores, I will be inputting them directly into my spreadsheet and changes will not be honored. An extension will be considered if it seems like interested voters need one.
6. Have a good ass time!

​

 

SING TO THE MOON (2013)
Like The Morning Dew
Make Me Lovely
Green Gardens
Can't Live With The World
Is There Anybody Out There?
Father, Father
That's Alright
She
I Don't Know What the Weather Will Be
Sing To The Moon
Flying Without You
Diamonds
Unbelievable Dream (Bonus Track) -- Missing from Spotify Playlist
Jump Right Out (Bonus Track)
Something Out of the Blue (Bonus Track)
Take The Time (Japanese Bonus Track) -- Missing from Spotify Playlist


THE DREAMING ROOM (2016)
Who I Am (Intro)
Overome (featuring Nile Rodgers)
Bread
Lucky Man
Let Me Fall
Kiss My Feet
Show Me Love
Renaissance Moon
Angel
People (featuring Wretch 32)
Phenomenal Woman
Ready Or Not [Fugees Cover]
You Work For Me (Bonus Track)
Magic (BBC Live Version) [Coldplay Cover]
Silence Is The Way (Miles Davis & Robert Glasper featuring Laura Mvula)
Same Ol' Mistakes (BBC Live Version) [Tame Impala Cover]
Mellow Man (from the Motion Picture "BrOTHERHOOD")


1/f (2021)
Sing To The Moon (1/f Version)
Show Me Love (1/f Version)
Green Gardens (1/f Version)
I'm Still Waiting [Diana Ross Cover]


PINK NOISE (2021)
Safe Passage
Unconditional
Church Girl
Remedy
Magical
Pink Noise
Golden Ashes
What Matters (featuring Simon Neil)
Got Me
Before The Dawn


EXTRAS
Little Girl Blue (from the Motion Picture "12 Years A Slave")
Stay Awake (from Jazz Loves Disney Vol. 2)
Dancing Machine (Naughty Town feat. Laura Mvula)
Ocean Wide, Canyon Deep (Jacob Collier with Laura Mvula and the Metropole Orkest)
Elijah (House of EL feat. Laura Mvula & Jay Prince)
Brighter Dawn (from the Motion Picture "Clemency")
We Go Harder feat. Mayra Andrade (from the Motion Picture "The Harder We Fall")


OPTIONAL SONGS
Sad, Sad World - Live at Abbey Road (Jamie Cullum feat. Laura Mvula)
Water Under Bridges (Gregory Porter feat. Laura Mvula)
Good Morning Heartache (Jamie Cullum featuring Laura Mvula)
Well Loved (Becca Stevens feat. Laura Mvula)
Reckless (from "Song For Australia") [Australian Crawl Cover]
Brighter Day (Michael Olatuja and Laura Mvula)
Nobody Knows My Name (Jose James and Laura Mvula)

PM-able Song List

Spoiler

SONGS
SING TO THE MOON (2013)
Like The Morning Dew
Make Me Lovely
Green Gardens
Can't Live With The World
Is There Anybody Out There?
Father, Father
That's Alright
She
I Don't Know What the Weather Will Be
Sing To The Moon
Flying Without You
Diamonds
Unbelievable Dream (Bonus Track)
Jump Right Out (Bonus Track)
Something Out of the Blue (Bonus Track)
Take The Time (Japanese Bonus Track)

THE DREAMING ROOM (2016)
Who I Am (Intro)
Overome (featuring Nile Rodgers)
Bread
Lucky Man
Let Me Fall
Kiss My Feet
Show Me Love
Renaissance Moon
Angel
People (featuring Wretch 32)
Phenomenal Woman
Ready Or Not [Fugees Cover]
You Work For Me (Bonus Track)
Magic (BBC Live Version) [Coldplay Cover]
Silence Is The Way (Miles Davis & Robert Glasper featuring Laura Mvula)
Same Ol' Mistakes (BBC Live Version) [Tame Impala Cover]
Mellow Man (from the Motion Picture "BrOTHERHOOD")

1/f (2021)
Sing To The Moon (1/f Version)
Show Me Love (1/f Version)
Green Gardens (1/f Version)
I'm Still Waiting [Diana Ross Cover]

PINK NOISE (2021)
Safe Passage
Conditional
Church Girl
Remedy
Magical
Pink Noise
Golden Ashes
What Matters (featuring Simon Neil)
Got Me
Before The Dawn

EXTRAS
Little Girl Blue (from the Motion Picture "12 Years A Slave")
Stay Awake (from Jazz Loves Disney Vol. 2)
Dancing Machine (Naughty Town feat. Laura Mvula)
Ocean Wide, Canyon Deep (Jacob Collier with Laura Mvula and the Metropole Orkest)
Elijah (House of EL feat. Laura Mvula & Jay Prince)
Brighter Dawn (from the Motion Picture "Clemency")
We Go Harder (from "The Harder We Go")

OPTIONAL
Sad, Sad World - Live at Abbey Road (Jamie Cullum feat. Laura Mvula)
Water Under Bridges (Gregory Porter feat. Laura Mvula)
Good Morning Heartache (Jamie Cullum featuring Laura Mvula)
Well Loved (Becca Stevens feat. Laura Mvula)
Reckless (from "Song For Australia") [Australian Crawl Cover]
Brighter Day (Michael Olatuja and Laura Mvula)
Nobody Knows My Name (Jose James and Laura Mvula)

YouTube Playlist
Spotify Playlist

*************************

A few notes about the Song List:
1. Shortly after Sing To The Moon was released, Laura rerecorded the entire Standard Edition of the album with Metropole Orkest. While the live orchestra and live vocals certainly provide new moments to enjoy (and in many ways, are the definitive versions of those songs to me), they are essentially the exact same song, and will therefore not be voted for separately. If you are new to Laura, I would recommend listening to the proper album, but if you have listened to Sing To The Moon and haven't ever gotten around to the live album, I highly encourage giving it a listen.

2. Alternatively, when Laura did her live concert in preparation for Pink Noise, she released highly changed/remix versions of three previous songs, Sing To The Moon, Show Me Love, and Green Gardens. We will be voting on both versions of these songs. (These are part of the 1/f - EP).

3. There are two bonus tracks from Sing To The Moon that are missing from the Spotify Playlist, but are included in the YouTube playlist.

4. We will not be rating the spoken only interlude "Nan" from The Dreaming Room.

5. Laura is a highly sought after artist in the classical and jazz community, and as such, she has worked on a number of songs as a featured artist. I did not want to have a lengthy extras section that would scare potential new listeners away, which is why the extras section only consists of solo releases, film soundtrack releases, or major collaborations.

6. I've included an "Optional" section with 7 more songs for those who really want to deep dive in the full cannon of Ms. Mvula. These songs are entirely optional to listen to, rate, and provide commentary for. Depending on how many people actually submit scores for them, I may just do song highlights scattered through the rate, or include them properly. TBD.​

 

@adayasatiger
@Attis
@BritPopLover
@BubblegumBoy
@CorgiCorgiCorgi
@klow
@odyism
@Remorque
@soratami
@Skyline
@Sprockrooster
@TéléDex
@Trouble in Paradise

and your fearless host, @boombazookajoe​

 

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54. Mellow Man (from the Motion Picture "BrOTHERHOOD") (6.61)​
55. Who I Am (Intro) (6.61)​
56. Jump Right Out (Bonus Track) (6.54)​
57. Unbelievable Dream (Bonus Track) (6.47)​
58. Something Out of the Blue (Bonus Track) (6.27)​
59. Good Morning Heartache (Jamie Cullum featuring Laura Mvula) (6.25)​
60. Sad, Sad World - Live at Abbey Road (Jamie Cullum feat. Laura Mvula) (6.00)​
61. Nobody Knows My Name (Jose James and Laura Mvula) (5.89)​

 

You may post now! I'll fancy up the opening post shortly and do a major tagging spree sometime later this week, but I have family visiting until Wednesday and don't really have the time at the moment but wanted to get this going so people know it's happening! Excited to go on this journey with you all!

xoxo,
Joey

 

So Pink Noise was my favourite album of last year and I'm seeing her live in September. I'm not familiar with her other stuff but it feels like now is the moment to dive in.

 

Have the Anthony and Cleopatra tracks been left out because they're mostly instrumental? (Although Laura does provide vocals on a couple).

Edit: Forgot to mention that I'd love to take part in this rate. Considering that Laura's discography isn't that big I don't think it will take too long for me to get through it. Besides, it gives me a good excuse to listen to her first two albums for the first time in a while.

 

Glad you are going to join! And yes, due to the fact that they were largely instrumental only and don’t really fit in the rest of her cannon I left them off, but I’ll probably do a highlight of that work during the rate!

 

I will be trying this ddd. But maybe for my sanity I will be doing both (also via PM) in case I fuck it up and lose everything.

Also this had me shook for a moment:

Not the Miles Davis/Robert Glasper song being cut I feared. Only to find it is twice in the voting list (The Dreaming Room/Optionals). Not sure where you want to put it @boombazookajoe. It is also twice in your excel sheet.

 

I simply don’t know what you could be referring to. Me?! Making a clerical error? NEVER!

(Since it is an official Bonus Track for Dreaming Room it will stay there and I’ll remove it from Optionals!)

 

I'm here for this!

I know Pink Noise is super beloved in the forum, but I hope it doesn't end up dominating too much. The other two are also fantastic albums, especially The Dreaming Room. I never got around to listening to the 1/f EP and am not familiar with any of the extras/optional songs either, so looking forward to discovering those.

 

I also know the forum really rallied around Pink Noise (deservedly!) but all three of her albums are phenomenal and I hope that recency bias doesn’t make the other two get lost in the shuffle.

 

I am also fearing this. I think it is the same situation as the Kacey Musgraves rate where Golden Hour did not suffer a loss until the top 25. Locked in 8 tracks in the top 10 pushing out one album out of the top 10 alltogether. I obviously adore Golden Hour but it dod not deserve to dominate like that. Let's hope it is a bit more equal in this rate.

 

@-Jay-
@2014
@4Roses
@1991
@A-Bond

You have, at some point in the last 10 years (ddd), posted positively in the Laura Mvula thread -- so you are cordially invited to the Laura Mvula Discography Rate!

(ignore if you've already posted in or liked a post in this thread)

xx
boombazookajoe​

 

@adayasatiger
@AfternoonsInUtopia
@AlmostMidnight
@Andrew
@animalinstinct

You have, at some point in the last 10 years (ddd), posted positively in the Laura Mvula thread -- so you are cordially invited to the Laura Mvula Discography Rate!

(ignore if you've already posted in or liked a post in this thread)

xx
boombazookajoe​

 

@Attis
@Booers
@BeingBoring
@bestinase
@beyoncésweave

You have, at some point in the last 10 years (ddd), posted positively in the Laura Mvula thread -- so you are cordially invited to the Laura Mvula Discography Rate!

(ignore if you've already posted in or liked a post in this thread)

xx
boombazookajoe​

 

@BikeThief
@blaze_dave
@BritPopLover
@bcmuk
@Butterfly

You have, at some point in the last 10 years (ddd), posted positively in the Laura Mvula thread -- so you are cordially invited to the Laura Mvula Discography Rate!

(ignore if you've already posted in or liked a post in this thread)

xx
boombazookajoe​

 

@cathures
@CatastropheBoy
@Cognitive Dissonance
@constantino
@Cordyceps

You have, at some point in the last 10 years (ddd), posted positively in the Laura Mvula thread -- so you are cordially invited to the Laura Mvula Discography Rate!

(ignore if you've already posted in or liked a post in this thread)

xx
boombazookajoe​