Personally, I can’t rave enough about Lianne La Havas. I believe she is one of the best talents that has ever come out of the UK. She has world class vocal mastery, instrumentalism, stage performance and songwriting abilities. And she is only two albums into her her career; the sky is genuinely the limit when it comes to Lianne. Fresh off of her performance at Afropunk in London, she surprised us this week with a Facebook post. Reminding us she is still hard at work on a new album, she released a video for the 2015 track ‘Tokyo’ from her incredible second album, ‘Blood’.

Thoughts on Tokyo

As you might expect, the video was shot in Tokyo. It was both shot and directed by Ravi Dhar, and is done so in a very stylish manner. It features great artistic shots of Tokyo, blended with Lianne looking over the city before wandering the streets. I immediately got vibes of Sofia Coppola’s ‘Lost in Translation’, with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. The video (and the lyrics) really capture the feeling of loneliness that you can have when you are in such a busy and active city, but are only travelling through. A sole spectator to the goings on in this whole different world in which you find yourself. She brought that feeling out perfectly in the song, and the video collaboration has elevated the art. Really amazing work.

“All I’ve ever known is how to be alone, it comes naturally.” That lyric by itself is powerful enough to give you that entire lonely image that so many people in huge bustling cities are used to. ‘Blood’ was a critically acclaimed 10 track album released in 2015, a long awaited follow-up to Lianne’s highly praised debut record ‘Is Your Love Big Enough?’, released in 2012. She supported Coldplay on their world tour over the last year, and is currently preparing to play in Japan next month. Keep an eye out, Lianne is going nowhere.

By Matt Lott

Matt Lott Music News

George Millington