Andreya Triana, a South London-born, Brighton-based singer, is in possession of two gifts at the moment. One is her voice, put to excellent use on her debut album Lost Where I Belong. The other is a sense of restraint and self-possession, which anyone knows is more than necessary when a gifted singer cuts a record. In the ongoing chronicle of lady vocalists, there are a number of ways in which a singer might end up misusing her gifts; this is why we have someone like Christina Aguilera who regularly oversings and overproduces everything she touches, or someone like Joss Stone, who has been repeatedly lambasted for lacking the authenticity to sing soul music.
So Triana is treading strangely dangerous waters by dipping her toe in the soul music pool—too much emphasis on virtuoso talent and the music will seem affected, not enough so-called ‘cred’ and it’ll lack authenticity. Luckily for Triana, her debut effort strikes an agreeable balance between vocal chops and organic musicianship. This is due in large part to Bonobo, a DJ and producer normally known for making elaborate electronica, who instead used a subtle, deft hand when producing the album.
Lost Where I Belong is a dexterous hybrid of soul, R&B, jazz and lounge, never cloying, never failing to uphold the most important element of the music—namely, Triana’s voice. Who does she sound like? Two parts Sade, one part Erykah Badu, four parts Adele. “Draw The Stars” opens the album with smooth backing vocals, hand drums, and simple muted bells—almost a Middle Eastern vibe—that eventually morph into pretty violins and a chorus that remains calm to temper the crescendo. On the title track, she sings, “So I will sing you a song that I know that I can lean on/’Cause I am lost where I belong” over simple strumming and head-nod-inducing percussion. This is what the kids these days might call ‘chill’ music. Also, you could use any number of hot drinks and/or rich desserts to find a cliché comparison for Andreya Triana’s voice. Other solid numbers: “Daydreamers,” which uses Triana’s ultra-smooth falsetto to great effect, and “X,” the ominous fingerpicked closing track.
Okay, so there are points when the songs blur together a bit; there isn’t enough to truly vary the material, as Triana seems to have picked a certain vibe and stayed faithful the whole way through. Consistency is mostly a blessing here, and worse things could honestly happen to an album, though clocking in at just over a half-hour, it seems like more EP-length than LP, so a few more tracks would fill it out a bit better. Tracks like “A Town Called Obsolete” and “Far Closer” slip through the cracks in terms of being memorable, but one gets a sense that this album is more about an atmosphere than the ambition to be a collection of catchy singles. A vocal talent like Andreya Triana shouldn’t be ignored; here’s hoping she’ll catch on with a wider audience soon.
Track list:
1. Draw The Stars
2. Lost Where I Belong
3. A Town Called Obsolete
4. Darker Than Blue
5. Daydreamers
6. Far Closer
7. Something In The Silence
8. Up in Fire
9. X
