They start them young these days, don’t they? Mahalia Burkmar — better known as Mahalia in the biz — started writing songs at the age of 12, got a record deal at 13, turned 21 in May, and — as of today — is onto her second album.
Moreover, it’s extraordinary: Love and Compromise is an accomplished record of neo-soul and R&B songs about break-ups and friend zones, heartbreaks and cheating boys and feckless exes.
What You Did is a standout track: a languid, mournful, yet defiant ode to love squandered by an unfaithful ex. “You could tell me to stay but I have to go/I would not expect someone to stay around if I let them down,” she shrugs, sadly.
Square 1, on the other hand, is a lighter track about a fruitless flirtation: the frustrations of ending up — after all that — “nothing more than friends”.
Simmer, featuring Yoruba singer-songwriter Burna Boy, will get you at the very first listen — it’s anthemic, infectious ultra-modern R&B, with a bassline resonant of Sean Paul (which can only be a good thing).
You can hear the eye roll implicit in I Wish I Missed My Ex, a sassy, sarky track about an ex who won’t give it up: “Every time the weekend comes, yeah/I know that it won’t be long, yeah/Til you’re gonna call my phone, yeah/You’ll be like ‘Babe, come over’”.
Youth isn’t wasted on the young.
