ALA.NI – You & I

An engrossing hymn to love's mad carousel...

Are you hungover and browsing the internet aimlessly in an effort to relieve the all-consuming pain wracking your body? Does your brain feel like it needs to be swaddled in something soft and reassuring? Do you want all the comfort of your childhood home without your parents scolding you for losing your key and throwing up in the recycling before it was even sorted? Well then stranger, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to prescribe you a good five listens through ALA.NI’s ‘You & I’ to coax you back into some semblance of normality.

The London-based singer, who has had spells working as a backup singer with the likes of Damon Albarn and Mary J. Blige, swooped into public consciousness last year with a spellbinding performance on Jools Holland’s ‘Later’ that rivals even Seasick Steve and Janelle Monáe in the fan-winning debut stakes. If you haven’t seen it yet then we insist you shake yourself out of your hungover stupor and brave Jools’ exuberant squawking for just a glimpse of her performance. Writhing like a Hellenic snake-priestess while cooing like a dove, ALA.NI reaches back further than most retro revivalists to faithfully adapt the vocal stylings of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday for a show-stopping rendition of single ‘Cherry Blossom’, which also fittingly opens her long-awaited album.

‘Cherry Blossom’ is the kind of love song your grandma might have heard Vera Lynn crooning over the wireless circa 1939, ostensibly straightforward but loaded with inferred loss. Though she claims that “Love forever everlasting love / Is forever and a day,” it’s obvious from her twin metaphors of the flowing river and the temporary nature of the whirling blossom that she doesn’t truly believe this to be the case. ‘One Heart’ sheds some light on the cause of her bittersweet sentiment when she mourns that “Evidently you love me and another, this I know” revealing herself to be the ‘other woman’ tangled in a tragic love triangle.

The record acts as a concept album of sorts, tracking the deception (both self and otherwise) of a yearlong passionate love affair and the devastation left in its wake. The liner notes read "My love for you was sprung in SPRING. And flourished in the SUMMER sun. AUTUMN killed the fresh green leaves. By WINTER all was said and done", neatly summing up the fleeting passion conveyed by the album’s neat arc. Make sure you’re alone in your bed when you give ‘You & Me a listen’. Partly because you don’t want to give your partner cause to mull over the transient nature of love, but mainly because you’ll need that spare pillow to bury your face in.

The first few tracks revel in the heady days of a budding relationship, all stolen kisses and duvet-cloaked promises. But as the seasons flutter by the untenability of their situation gradually dawns on our two lovebirds. “We agreed to part in harmony / But I think I may live to regret being wholehearted” is the damning verdict of a woman ready to turn her back on love in ‘Darkness at Noon’. And, in a world where passion is subservient to reason, that is where ALA.NI’s heartbreaking tale should end. But it’s not long before she returns to the same spot her love blossomed the first (or possibly second, or possibly 90th) time during the opening track for ‘To The River’. The self-destructive cycle is perfectly explained on closer ‘The Circle’, where ALA.NI invites the listener to ignore her warnings and give in to love’s mad carousel. You may get hurt, but each time is never quite the same.

7/10

Words: Josh Gray

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