On his sophomore, EP Ayo Benzi wears his emotions on his sleeve and doesn’t hold back.
In typical Nigerian fashion, Ayo opens the EP with gratitude on his lips—extolling his God for granting him the grace to thrive by iterating that “oil dey my head.” The beat here has an uptempo house rhythm to it and minimal percussion going on, so it hardly distracts you from the highly sentimental theme of the song.
Alone features quixotic guitar riffs and minimal talking drums, that threaten to build into a crescendo but never really do and it works to a tee. Ayo expresses his feelings to his love interest in unfiltered words, making it pixel clear that she’s of utmost priority to him and their love is worth fighting for. Dominant drums finally kick in on Faraway, alongside triumphant trumpet horns. Despite being a loverboy, Ayo asserts his self dignity on the song and makes it clear without reasonable doubt that he’s not to be trifled with.
Loko is mara coded, down to the sirene-esque bounce and Ayo’s delivery on it. It’s possibly the best song on the EP, because it displays much needed dynamism from Ayo and offers something distinct from the rest of the project, that is gratitude centric and packed with wholesome songs. All in all, Heat & Heart EP definitely offers enough to keep the listener engaged.
