King Mala certainly has that star quality about her, both in her musical compositions – which are like an amalgamation of Roisin Murphy, Dua Lipa, PJ Harvey (albeit only on ‘If I Try To Find You‘), Brenda Lee, Paloma Faith, Soko, Garbage, Aaliyah and Beyoncè – and also in her distinctive outward appearance. A real potpourri affair then, and the result is really quite hard to resist. The erstwhile Areli Castro’s sensual vocals elevate her songs to another level completely and almost make you feel like she’s lying there next to you.
The la-la-la-ing of the infectious ‘Sugarblind‘ introduces us to King Mala’s debut EP release before the minimalist chamber-soul introduction of ‘If I Try To Find You‘ leads into that Polly Jean style vocalising I mentioned before.
The splendid ‘Homebody‘ is arguably the standout here, a breezily emotive tune with shades of Janelle Monae about it, if she’d been performing in a coffee lounge. “If you don’t tell them, I won’t tell them, nobody will ever know” sings the El Paso born Californian, perhaps suggesting an extra-marital affair at a party from hell (check the rest of the lyrics).
The remainder of the EP is made up of ‘B4U‘ and ‘Give Me‘, two songs with a real soul-cleansing sense about them and we are left with an ultra-relaxed 3am vibe. It’s really quite beautiful stuff.
