The British singer-songwriter Ella Mai has found huge success in the States. Handpicked by behemoth hip-hop producer DJ Mustard via Instagram, her schmaltzy, throwback-style R&B track Boo’d Up this year made her the first UK artist to top the US R&B charts since 1992 (the last was Lisa Stansfield’s All Woman).
As a result, Mai’s debut album does feel distinctly American, foregoing the UK’s current love of afrobashment and garage for a sparkling sound that nostalgically nods to 90s favourites. That is, bar the distinctly English-accented, spoken-word interjections, where she announces each letter of her name with a different definition (“E” is for “emotion”, etc), until on Close she spells out, a little cloyingly, “I am Ella Mai”.
At its best the music coos with lyrical assuredness and Janet Jackson-style sexiness (Shot Clock boasts intoxicating production and delicate intonations), but while it’s a cohesive set, a lot of the tracks fail to stick in the memory. The Chris Brown-featuring Whatchamacallit, which lauds how fun cheating can be, is difficult to justify. A decent debut, then, but with Mai’s rich voice you can’t help feeling that it could have been stratospheric. Instead, it fails to innovate, and all feels a little beige.
