Jain – Souldier (Columbia)

“We must keep in our minds that love is a power we have. A rainbow in his eyes and a song to make me smile.” Inspired by the Orlando Nightclub shooting in June 2016, that killed at least 49 people, the wordplay-titled ‘Souldier’ might not be about a specific soulful soldier that rescued lives that day but rather a metaphor for a strong willed person fighting against injustice that lies in their path. This ‘don’t give up’ mentality is one of the concepts behind the multicultural Toulouse-born musician Jeanne Galice a.k.a Jain’s second record.

The third-culture kid who magnetised many into her distinctively branded universe three years ago in 2015’s culturally-enriching and cross-Continental Zanaka, sees herself as a “souldier” of hope this time with this record’s lyrics mostly occupied with encouraging people to move on from heartbreak and hard times.

Examples include “On my way to reach you, babe / Give away your fears. They don’t mean a thing.” (‘On My Way’), “Things going to be alright, if love is around.” (‘Alright’), “Don’t give up the feeling in you. Don’t give up and try to stand up” (‘Oh Man’) and “Oh when we’ll be free. When we’ll stop hating and respect ourselves” (‘Feel It’). Forgiveness actually being one of the principles of the Indian religion Jainism – where Jain get’s her name from.

Although songs like this are inspiring beacons of light in age where it’s easy to feel drained from hopelessness, depression and confusion, many of these hope-based lyrics are overly simplistic, vague, forgettable and obvious, lacking the same captivating edge as her continually surreal optical illusion music videos and genre fusion choices.

Jain is most interesting on Souldier outside the main concept, when she’s tongue-in-cheek and speaking about her interesting country-hopping past. The surprising childhood flashback ‘Inspecta’ reimagines the Inspector Gadget Theme into a reggae-rap – yes you read that right! – and contains a lyric that references the famous cartoon series: “don’t want all your gadgets, all I want is your respect“. It’s silly but admirably bold. While the speedy and erratic ‘Star’ is a playful commentary on the contradictory mentality of famous people: “You wanna be a star. But you can’t stand the light.”

Like much of her previous record Zanaka, ‘Flash-Pointe Noire’ and ‘Abu Dhabi’ on this new release both speak about her time living in foreign countries. The former speaks about the early part of her music career when she tried to find time to make music demos in between her studies, while the latter is not only a love poem to one of her adopted homes of Abu Dhabi, it actually borrows its Arabic sound to over-the-top authenticity and then funnily makes this point. “Move back there, so I could move on. I’m taking all I can from the desert sound“, she cheekily sings.

Co-produced between herself and compatriot Maxim Nucci (who helped with the first album) and promoted by the same creative music video team Greg & Lio, Souldier is a smooth musical transition from her debut. The transition is smooth because it thankfully contains a similar flavour of cultural diversity and imagination. Jain still embraces African rhythm and percussion such as marimba (‘Oh Man’, ‘Alright’ and ‘Dream)’, reggae pace and adds to it other culture symbols in Latin guitars, Asian strings and that aforementioned Arabic make-over.

However, it also feels more like it belongs in the western world than its predecessor due to its hiphop elements – sticky and snappy snares and American-style rapping. It also exists within a more zeitgeist timeline due to ‘Flash -Pointe-Noire’ sounding like Meghan Trainor’s ‘All About That Bass’ and the uplifting style of some of the pop ballads such as ‘Dream’ and ‘Feel It’. Although those last two are the most skippable tracks on the record due to being quite dull, the fact that Jain’s voice is similar the incredible soulful French twin sisters of the Ibeyi is a plus point.

Nonetheless, Jain’s cultural spirit, gratitude towards the past and sense of fun are still all present on her new record and these are the elements that made her irresistible in the first place.