I’ve been digging through the boundless pages of COLORS throughout the past few days, and what I’ve found is a hotbed of refreshing sounds from all over the world. I’m not one to hide the fact that I love reading other blogs and seeing what different writers are listening to, especially when it gives me inspiration to look in different places for new music. Today, thanks to COLORS, I’m here to present the latest project from an artist named Kaiya Crawford, Mama.
10 tracks in length, Crawford’s latest body of work pulls from a decadent strain of R&B, infusing heart-stricken lyrics into a hand-woven bed of velvety production. With each successive track, the LA-based artist brings listeners further into her world of family-minded soul, and best of all, she refuses to compromise the fervency of her emotions along the way. Resulting is a deeply personal project, and one that solidifies Crawford’s voice as a communal force around which listeners can resonate and find comfort.
With this in mind, there’s one moment in particular that made the true warmth of Mama come full-circle for me, personally. It came right after listening all the way through Mama, when I took a step back and began to revisit random songs that stuck out to me — the first of which was the project’s intro.
At the start of the introductory piece, “Mama (Intro),” Crawford pairs the innocent beauty of a ukelele with her silky background vocals. Lying atop the production is a heartwarming vocal sample, establishing the foundation for the project to spring off of. Under this concoction of elements, especially when the bass starts to come in and add some power behind the song, one can truly feel the emotional weight of the project come into focus. The intro ends with the line “the love outweighs the pain of the grief,” and from there, Crawford doesn’t look back, painting her heart onto each and every note thereafter.
With that said, Mama is an incredibly thoughtful body of work and one well worth the time — show some love and check it out below!
Production by Kaiya Crawford, Sean Matsukawa, Ashton McCreight, Ant Torrez, and Dart
Additional Writing by Leylah Lasarow (“On Me”)
Mixed/Mastered by Sean Matsukawa @ The Blu Room