Cécile McLorin Salvant: Oh Snap
I first wrote about Cécile McLorin Salvant back in 2013 when she released her debút album, WomanChild. Salvant has always been a singular jazz singer who reinvigorates old standards with humorous twists. Her lyrical choices have always been intriguing.
With her latest release, Oh Snap, she experiments with her own writing. Right off the opening track, “I am a volcano,” she explains over electronic pop production that she wants to be a river, but she’s volcano instead and the image she gives is fascinating: “I am a cyst, finally expressing, pressing out the pus / Red, black, fire, smoke and lust / Molten rock destroying everything.”
With “Anything but now,” she returns to post-bop singing with lyrics that many of us can relate: “I spend a lot of time thinking about doing things / Instead of doing them / I spend a lot of time thinking about saying things / Instead of saying them / Out loud, out loud, out loud.” She’s damn right we spend a lot of time ruminating instead of doing shit, yet her band swings like hell.
Over strumming guitar, she sings “Take a stone,” a folky flavor, with captivating lyrics such as: “Tomorrow morning, at the edge of a volcano / She’ll meet him with her arms open wide / His hands are broken, he used them to caress her / In places she could not begin to understand.” In my head, I am like, “WTF?”
On “What does blue mean to you?,” she swings the blues with more telling lyrics: “An emerald far in the distance / That we’ve been galloping to / Barefoot and bloody / Winded and tired and sweaty.”
With the title track, “Oh Snap,” she switches up with electronic new age, yet her lyrics remain hilarious: “Oh shit, I think you love me / I think I’ve shown you all of the cruel and nasty parts of me / But you still haven’t left, is it abject fidelity? / Or could it be that love is more than just fantasy to you?”
Over the 12 years since her debút, Salvant has gone a long way as an artist. She is willing to experiment and to step up her game. Let’s break out a bottle of Aberfeldy 21 and cheer for Oh Snap.