Music Review: Was Wizkid's Morayo worth the wait?

 Album Overview: A quick look at Wizkid's Morayo

First, I have a confession to make: I have been a Wizkid fan since the early days of Superstar (Holla at Your Boy). So, I am definitely biased, but I will try to remove my emotions as much as possible and give a balanced critique.

Let's start with the genre seen on Morayo. Wizkid undoubtedly ranks high among afrobeats listeners, but the Starboy singer is definitely trying out new sounds and being experimental, as seen in the overall sound of the album.

Morayo started with a Fuji sound and progressed mostly to an R&B style that featured elements of soul and emotional vocals. Afrobeats is known for its dance appeal; it also contains funk, jazz, hip-hop, and electronic elements. However, Wizkid's latest album, Morayo, mostly lacked these elements except for the track Kese (Dance), which is danceable and stands out as the major afrobeat sound in the Morayo album.

The major themes of Morayo are soul, emotion, romance, and bits of high life. It followed a narrative style with Wizkid talking about his Mother, love, and life.

Wizkid's album Morayo had 16 songs and a listening time of approximately 47 minutes, so in my view, it is a proper album, although I concede that many of the tracks were very short. On the issue of track arrangement, I could not spot any particular order, but I am sure Wizkid had his reasons.

Now, let's take a deep dive into the Morayo album. I will discuss its highlights, lyrics, production, and vocal delivery.

 Track highlights in Wizkid's Morayo album

As I said earlier, the whole album is mostly soul and has fewer afrobeats. Morayo started with the track Troubled Mind, which had the fuji element I mentioned earlier. It was a nice sound, and here Wizkid spoke briefly about his mother and how he felt about her death:

....Say the blood for my eye, and the pain for my mind, mo le salaye

Yeah, I dey choko, I dey nice, omo, me, I just dey maintain

I got a troubled mind (ooh), I got a troubled mind

Right now, me just wan vibes and think

But my troubled mind wan sing, yeah Every day, every night, yeah, we ever blazing....

In another verse, we could hear Wizkid also saying:

.......Things I face, place for the pain, every day steady cruising Big bang, we unruly See my life like a movie Eyes red like we choko

And you know how the thing go so

Ko de s'eni to le to mi o, o Say a prayer for a real one Real life not so easy o....

However, one of the points that stands against this track is that you will think Wizkid will dedicate it all to his Mother, but no, he drifted to the usual and started talking about money and affluence.

A Million Blessings is another standout track in the Morayo album. It starts with a classical-like sound and lasted for 56 seconds. The track is about his blessings, affluence, and lifestyle as a star.

The Don't Care track has a melodic tone, and depending on what you like listening to, it might be the one to help you start your day. It has a nice chorus, and here, Wizkid mostly narrates his life in the music industry, talking about enemies and rivalry and basically saying he doesn't care.

Pray also made this list because of its chilled soundbites. The lyrics were about how he lives, stating that his mother prays for him. Wizkid went on to narrate his early beginnings, how they moved from one neighborhood to the other, and how his life has also changed in the process. It was a track about his appreciation for how far he has come.

This list would never be complete if I did not mention the Kese (dance) track. Kese can easily be floated as the best and most danceable track in the Morayo album. Through a combination of his unique vocals and vibrant beats, I saw the artistic side of Wizkid in Kese. Here, Wizkid sang mostly about enjoying life and the usual vibe; however, there was nothing unique about the lyrics seen on Kese.

 Now, Let's discuss the Lyrics on Morayo

Wizkid has always been known as a good songwriter, and his first boss, Banky W, has credited him with this. You can also see this in Drake's admiration of his skills after their collaboration in One Dance.

The above is why I was surprised that Wizkid, the known lyrical genius, did not show his magic in the Morayo album. None of the tracks show artistic genius in terms of lyrics.

Morayo is mostly about making love and flirting with a woman. The album was named after his mother, but he did not spend time talking about her or even dedicating one track to her name. If you remember Wizkid's 2014 album, Ayo, he dedicated the track Joy to his mother and spoke about how his mother gave him the name Ayo and how she cherished him. However, we never got to see that side of Wizkid in Morayo.

 Production and Vocal Delivery of Morayo

The whole Morayo album was a bit monotonic in terms of sound. As stated earlier, apart from Kese, the rest are not danceable. This new sound and style are intentional because we saw the same style in Made in Lagos of 2020 and More Love Less Ego of 2022, so I expected nothing less.

I liked the classical sound in A Million Blessings. Other tracks like Bend, Soji, and Bad for You also had good soundtracks, which I enjoyed.

In Piece of My Heart, we saw a dramatic change of beats, which I think was unnecessary as it made the track a bit confusing.

However, I was a bit disappointed in the collaboration with Asake. I must admit that The Bad Girl track had a good soundtrack, but going further, there was nothing fantastic about the songwriting; Wizkid flopped here because the whole song was mostly choruses, which Wizkid kept repeating just after Asake had said the same thing. So, while the beat was superb, the song quality was below par.

Most featured artists delivered their part regarding the vocals, even Wizkid with his new relaxed and soul style.

Morayo was more soulful and emotional than the usual Afro beats, so if this is your style of music, then the album is definitely for you.