LAMYA Learning From Falling (J Records) Rating: NNN Rating: NNN
Oman-born, opera-trained perennial backing vocalist Lamya (she’s fleshed out tunes by Bowie and Duran Duran) goes it on her own with this Nellee Hooper-produced record. Lamya’s debut disc shows off her pleasantly purring pipes, falling somewhere between the smoky trills of acid jazz diva Nicolette and the radio-friendly flash of our girl Nelly Furtado. While she differs from the usual gang of soulful girls by adding a hit of poetically intelligent lyrics, Lamya could be any number of contempo dance-soul-triphop-worldbeat types. She crams in sitars and strings, balalaika and upright bass, cranking out a mishmash of perfectly produced tunes that fail to find a musical focus. Lamya performs at Revival Saturday (October 12) at 6 pm.
