{Review}: Rema's "Rave and Roses" album shows artistic evolution, but…

**Rema’s Rave and Roses album Review**

Rema’s Rave and Roses album shows his artistic evolution. Rema renders impressive lyrics on the album, the mixing and production is on point, but the album is not discursive enough.

For most part of the album, Rema talks about love and relationship. And this makes some of the songs sound too similar. You have songs like Mara, Calm Down, Dirty, Jo, Soundgasm, Carry, Runaway; have the same themes.

The only records that stand out, are Calm Down, Divine, Time and Affection, and Addicted.

Even if love and relationship songs were to be discussed, seeing that they are the most relatable themes, they should have been done so subtly and varyingly.

An objective review of the tracks that didn’t talk about love, or talked about love in a not-so-obvious-way show that these tracks stand out

Below is a track by track review of Rema’s Rave and Roses album

1) Divine

Divine is the opener for Rema’s Rave and Roses album .

It highlights how special Rema is and how his breakthrough in the music industry and his success so far is because it has been orchestrated by God.

He believes he is a special boy. On Divine, Rema narrates how his mother gave birth to him.

He says his mother named him Divine because she believes that God gave him to her for a purpose.

Divine is the best album opener for Rave and Roses because Rema connects to us emotionally. He even tells us about how he felt pain when he lost his father.

Divine sets a wonderful mood for Rave and Roses and it makes Rave and Roses sound like it’s going to be huge!

The mixing and production is also amazing, and the sound at the end gives us an ethereal vibe.

2) Jo

Rema knows how to concoct the best sizzling lyrics and this is what he does on Jo. It sounds so convincing.

His delivery on Jo is so impressive.

Although the delivery dwindles towards the end of the song, it picks on later. Jo is such a vibe song and honestly, it should have been a lead single instead of Young Fresh Nigga.

The catchy lyrics is also a pro move

3) Calm Down

On “Calm down”, Rema expresses that he loves the girl in question and that he wants her.

He uses descriptive lyrics to explain how desirable her body is and how he wants it no matter what because he can’t get his mind off her.

He even says he can’t take a “no” from her.

Therefore, it may be right for her to not express so much trust in Rema since her body is his attraction.

Which means if he sees another lady with better “qualities“, he would “fall” in love with her too.

He says the lady’s body puts him on “Lockdown” because he can’t do anything else but think of her- or her body in this case.

On “Calm down“, Rema employs storytelling to get us interested in the song. He even discusses how he met her in a party and apart from her body, he says her character of being “Mellow” rather than other girls doing “too much” is what attracts him.

He says “other girls commot like chewing gum” but the girl is permanent.

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4) Addicted

This is noteworthy coming from Rema.

Rema addresses how his lover is addicted to getting flashy things and getting everything material she wants in the relationship.

It has a memorable lyrics of:

“You are addicted to this lifestyle. Please baby take it slow”

Addicted is a response to having an illusion of a relationship rather than chasing the real thing. Rema addresses ladies by telling them to find love and not money in a relationship.

He says: “Love is not a source of income”.

This is the fourth track on Rave and Roses and Rema is talking about a relationship issue and not his adulation of a girl’s body. Progess!

5) Oroma Baby

Oroma Baby should not have come as Number 5 since Calm Down has the same song theme.

It sounds too familiar and too similar to Calm Down.

Oroma Baby is actually a good song- at least, in terms of mixing and production and how the song is structured, but the lyrics could have been better and not sound too familiar.

6) Hold Me ft 6Lack

Hold Me is about a girl who Rema says he can “Take to his mama“.

He says “Na only true love be her interest“.

He establishes that she doesn’t have big breasts or butt.

Yet, she is not insecure about herself.

She loves herself and she wants a man because she wants to love him. Rema claims she doesn’t like drama.

He therefore begs her to hold him, since he is so interested in her virtues. He says:

I’ll take your matter serious like project”

With Hold Me, Rema establishes that true Love is what people should seek in relationship and Women should never be insecure about themselves.

The flaw with this song is that 6Lack came in too late. Just too late. Much of the verse was already taken up by Rema. Hold me ended well though.

7) Soundgasm

Soundgasm is literally about how Rema has intercourse with a lady. It’s literally about that alone. However, as Soundgasm indicates, the sound is intoxicating.

8) Mara

By the time Mara starts, it is obvious what Rema wants to sing about.

Mara is even more obvious than Oroma Baby. Since Oroma Baby and Calm Down are already on Rema’s Rave and Roses album, Mara should not have made this album.

Besides, there are Sixteen songs on this album- which is a little too much.

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9) Are you There?

Rema establishes that Nigeria is a country rife with so many troubles, and partying is the only way to loosen up.

He says he is a person that turns up but still loves his country. He says he faces reality only

Me I never no feel run away

This probably means he won’t leave the country.

He also says he believes in his country but there are so many corruptive people who hold the reins of the country.

Rema sings about the political power tussle of Nigeria, as a form of social awareness and consciousness.

But the addition of “turning up” lyrics and all that almost waters down the effect of Are You There?.

The message does not sink in fully and is almost lost.

10) Carry

On Carry, Rema showcases a woman’s body by saying how she is so blessed with her body features.

Apparently, he is “in love” with her because of her body features.

He claims he would give her anything she wants because of her body features.

Carry is also similar to Oroma Baby, Calm Down and to some extent, Mara.

11) Runaway

Runaway is a song about the singer’s unconditional love for his lover because people don’t want their relationship to flourish.

He claims there are so many constraints in their relationship, but he is willing to runaway with her because she is special.

Runaway is a good song, but the delivery is not passionate enough to get us that interested in the song.

12) Dirty

The next song is not supposed to be a romantic song, at least, not one about adulation of a girl or about love and relationship.

It makes Rema’s Rave and Roses basic at this point- that it’s just about love and relationship most of the time.

Even if this song were to be about love, it should be another song theme under love- not about holding and kissing and all that.

13) Time and Affection ft Chris Brown

Time and Affection sounds different than all the other love songs- at least, to some extent. It’s about Rema’s dedication to a lady.

He wants to give her all his time and Affection because she is worth it.

Chris Brown makes this song so much better.

His flow on this song is just too beautiful. It’s so fluid.

He complements Rema’s verse so much and makes Time and Affection an impressive listen.

Kudos to Chris Brown and Rema on this song.

Chris Brown doesn’t just treat Time and Affcetion like a foreign collaboration that needs to be handled, it sounds like he is actually interested in the song.

14) Love

It’s weird that there is a song titled “Love”, because it’s obvious what Rema wants to talk about on this song.

There are literally five other songs on Rema’s Rave and Roses album like Love.

The amusing thing is that this song is four minutes long.

Oroma Baby, Calm Down, Time and Affectio,Dirty and Jo have similar theme to Love. It should not have made Rema’s Rave and Roses album because it doesn’t even stand out.

15) Fresh Young Nigga ft AJ Tracey

Rema tries with his lyrics on Fresh Young Nigga, but even as he flaunts his lifestyle and choices, we struggle to see how Rema’s lyrics on Fresh Young Nigga are synonymous with being a Fresh Young Nigga.

True, it sounds like what any other Fresh Young Nigga should do. But more suitable lyrics should have been used on Fresh Young Nigga.

Meanwhile, his delivery is on point and this improves the overall performance of the song.

Although, AJ Tracey’s delivery is less passionate, Rema’s delivery covers for this. Rema delivered well on Fresh Young Nigga.

16) Wine ft Yseult

Wine starts like the best album closer for Rema’s Rave and Roses album. It starts with some vocalising that gets us so interested in the song already.

But it is disappointing that Wine is about love too. It is not supposed to be about love- even if it were to be, it is supposed to be about chilling with his lover, and not that the lover should whine her waist.

Wine starts well, but it is not the best album closer for Rema’s Rave and Roses album.

This song is well made, but it should not have come last. It doesn’t inspire you enough to want to listen to the album once more.

It would have even been better if Are You There? came last.

Also, Yseult came too late on the song that you almost forget that there are two people on the song.

Rema’s Rave and Roses album shows artistic evolution. Rema renders impressive lyrics on the album, the mixing and production is on point, but the album is not discursive enough. Although Rave and Roses indicates versatility at some point, the love songs make the album sound too simple/basic even though a lot of efforts were put into into it.

. Listen to the album here