Following the success of the release of her fifth studio album “Empress” which had three singles chart on Top Triller Global and one of the music video trend #1 on You Tube, Afropop Queen Yemi Alade is out with her second Extended play (EP) “Queen Don Come” and we cannot wait to dig into it.
If anything, Yemi Alade has shown that she manages to stay on top with her consistency. If she is not shooting music videos, she is recording new songs or planning to go on tour. She serves so much music content that she has been dubbed “The Queen of Content” especially with the creativity of her music videos. With more than 1.4 million listeners on Spotify and 1.8 million subscribers on YouTube, she establishes her position as the Queen of music in Nigeria.
Let’s get into a track by track review of her latest EP “Queen Don Come”
Starting with the title of the EP, it is obvious Yemi Alade is always trying to say no one really beats her when it comes to music by female singers in Nigeria. Though, this may not be entirely true. And what she might mean is that everyone is a queen in their own space. Her first studio album is titled “King of Queens”, her second studio album “Mama Africa”. Her fourth studio album is titled “Woman of Steel” and her fifth, “Empress” and now, “Queen Don Come” her second EP.
Queen Don Come EP Review
Track 1– “Ogogoro”
It is a good opener, at least, it has the sizzling tune that makes you get interested in the EP. Yemi explains how a guy intoxicates her like “Ogogoro” and leaves her wanting for more. It is a good song and would have been so much better if one more stanza had been added.
Track 2– “Sweety”
“Sweety” has a more romantic tune in comparison to “Ogogoro”. It is a vibe on its own! The only thing that made the song short of perfection is the vocalizing. It is a common feature of most Yemi Alade songs and most times, it almost ruins the originality of the song. Nevertheless, “Sweety” ends as a nice smooth song.
Track 3– “Ike”
“Ike” is a song about the love tussle between lovers. “Ike” means strength in Igbo language. Yemi opens with the catchphrase “I go catch you today”. She exclaims how he reaches out to other girls because he is handsome and rich.
Track 4– “Enjoyment”
One of the perfect songs on this EP. “Enjoyment” really puts you in an enjoyment mood. It achieves the goal of putting the listeners in a state of relaxation. The essence of a song is when it successfully achieves a goal or passes a message across successfully to the listeners. Enjoyment achieves this goal.
Also, the upbeat tempo does well for the song. Normally, I think Yemi Alade is more skilled in singing songs with Upbeat Tempo than with songs with a slow rhythm. Most of her hit songs “Johnny”, “Shekere”, “Bum Bum”, “Deceive” and “True Love” all have upbeat Tempos.
Read: Nigerian artists with highest listeners on spotify
“Enjoyment” also contains lyrics that are not just recycled over stanzas and hooks. No wonder it is the lead single. While the glib at the end do no good in adding to the song, the song is a nice song.
Track 5– “Dada”
“Dada” is okay. The singer sings about how she would do anything for a guy named Dada. The song has a similar tune and pattern to her “Shake” song on “Woman of Steel” album. I honestly feel like “Dada” should not have made the “Queen Don Come” EP. The EP is better without it. But if anything, I have learnt that every song is dear to the singer and they have their reasons for releasing the song.
Read: Yemi Alade: ‘EMPRESS’ album review
Track 6– “Ella”
“Ella” is literally the perfect song on this album. It gives “Queen Don Come” a different tone in comparison to other songs on the album.
“Ella” adjoins women and girls to be careful in relationships and not to invest themselves, their time and resources to relationships that would obviously fail. They should go into relationships because of themselves and the love they feel. Yemi says:
“It go be wuru wuru kind of love”.
To single mothers, she encourages them that the sun will shine in their lives and everything will fit into place consequently. Thumbs up to Yemi on this one.
Track 7– “Fire”
“Fire” is a song of adulation to a guy about his body. It is different to other love songs on “Queen Don Come” and the hook is very good. It should have been a single and should not have come last. But then, it probably came last to make the listeners want to listen to the EP again.
In the song, the singer likes a guy more than he does her and she implores him to love her equally because his friends are already making jest of her.
“Fire” is not bad coming last, it leaves a good memory for “Queen Don Come” and makes the listeners want to listen to it again.
Summary
“Queen Don Come” is a good body of work and will most likely be open to more positive reviews and though it does not have the creative power and addictiveness of “Empress”- Yemi Alade’s last album, it still leaves listeners awed at Yemi’s talents as a musician and how she has been able to stay relevant to their ears.
Take away the glib and vocalizing, and “Queen Don Come” would have been a perfect body of work. But if anything, it is an “All Yemi-Alade” body of work as there is no featured artist on the Extended play and this does not make it less powerful. Yemi should be applauded for dishing out relevant contemporary songs
Songwriting: 1.4/2
Track sequencing: 1.5/2
Mixing/producing: 2/2
Enjoyability: 1.5/2
Structure/Rhythm: 1/2
Total: 7.4/10
Click here to stream the album
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