LFTOS which is his sophomore project consists of six tracks, which is centered basically around the theme of love with a little dabble into other interesting life themes while on a sonic adventure that Wizzyice does a lot to bend to its will.
Gabriel Owoma popularly known as Wizzyice is a Ghanian-based Nigerian Afrobeats act fond of bringing some captivating and melodious sounds for the world to hear, in which he infuses interesting and captivating elements of Guitar, Piano, Saxophone heavily in his new sound dubbed “Afro Chill“. Inspired by the likes of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti and Wizkid who have been very pivotal to the movement of the Afrobeats genre across the globe, the goal is no different for this exciting young act.
Following the success of his last self titled 2-track pack which housed personally well acclaimed singles ‘Somebody‘ and ‘Number One Girl‘, Wizzyice is not slowing down anytime soon as he releases a new project titled ‘Love From The Other Side‘ EP in which he promises beforehand to be the beginning of something new in the music industry for all his fans home and abroad to enjoy.
LFTOS which is his sophomore project consists of six tracks, which is centered basically around the theme of love with a little dabble into other interesting life themes while on a sonic adventure that Wizzyice does a lot to bend to its will.
The project begins with the slow-burn project title song ‘LFTOS‘; a signature dub of his “Afro chill” genre. Wizzyice is not a stranger to regularly defying sonical boundaries; here creating a Afro RnB/Pop fusion track that takes in itself the hallmarks of both genres on an heavy backdrop of African percussions and rhythms. On it, Wizzyice is drowning in the euphoria of experiencing love from an entirely new kind of girl, which he describes as “omo to shan, omo to fine“. While he is enjoying the experience, he promises to do everything to keep it and craves so much for her attention. The lover boy mood bleeds into the next track,
‘Crazy Love‘. The production is much more upbeat and with it comes similarly much more intentionality in the artist’s expression of his feelings. “Your love dey do me crazy / amazing, oh baby you’re amazing“. With production credit to Fiokee, the song was helped massively with some great instinctive additions of essential guitar chords that permeates the entire song.
‘Pour The Whine‘ combines the bouncy beat of African drums with Amapiano elements. The message here however is different from the previous tracks, with the focus based on success. “I dey sharp and I face my hustle, for this game you must beat your struggle” shows Wizzyice’s motivation which also transcends into his next verse where he pens that ” make the money go high, wey we no fit calculate o“. The delivery is much more different here as well, with an Hip-Hop cadence adopted.
Well, that would seem like a short break, with the artist returning into his lover-boy persona on ‘Oxygen‘. Realistically, as we progress on the love themed tracks, the production are much more lively and the intentions gets really serious. Here, Wizzyice refers to his girl as his oxygen – a life sustaining elements. “I can’t breathe, need you” is enough to convey how much importance the artist attaches to his girl. This would probably go down as the most commercial song off the project, it is truly worthy of all hype it gets.
“The feeling is deep, I want it for real“, Wizzyice admits on ‘Flames‘. On this song, there are a lot of confessions and one could as well hear the sincerity in those words with a proper consideration of Wizzyice’s tone in rendering it. As much as this song might not actually in reality have itself dedicated to someone, Wizzyice gave his best effort to make it sound so genuine you would think he performed it to his lover in the studio while recording.
There is one more switch thematically, and it’s on the outro ‘Overdose‘. One can duly understand the move behind that with Wizzyice entering into an introspective mood where addresses how much his success has changed him. He also brags about his new financial standards and one would wonder, why not ? It’s a befitting close to his debut project and an interesting declaration of where he is right now as a person and an artist.
What stands out on LFTOS is the thematic cohesiveness. Wizzyice was able to stick to the love-themed progression without sounding repetitive or being monotonous. Bar the occasional thematic deviation in which listeners could come to consensus that it is actually needed, Wizzyice set the and never strayed far from it and duly stayed in line with the project title.
What typifies great albums ? In recent times, this is a question that has become a difficult one to answer because of the different perspectives people would adopt in the quest to provide an answer. Well, whatever the measures taken, Wizzyice’s LFTOS gravitates on the positive side of it all.
[LISTEN]: “Love From The Other Side” by Wizzyice.
