Funbi is known as a master of serenades by those who have built camp around his easily bended melodies and those soft harmonies he welds with his smooth sailing vocals. “Chai Funbi dey sing!” Is not far from the lips of anyone who plays his records, this emphatic assertion most likely coming out of a mouth on a face with eyes closed as melodies sink into ears. His latest project, ‘Love Lust’ comes six years after his last body of work and three years after his last single release. His return is at best a reminder of the space he fills in the Nigerian music industry that can hardly ever be filled by anyone else.
‘Love Lust’ consists of seven (7) riveting tracks namely Distance, One Call, Set Me Free, Love Lust, All Good (feat. Karun), Lead Me On and finally, Muse. Each track takes a different perspective of communications between the artiste persona and his muse, presented musically in stories that are cohesively arranged through lyricism and melodies. For example, Distance explores the bridge of endless hopefulness in a sort of relationship where both lovers are separated by physical distance. One Call carries the story from Distance on, the artist belting endless promises about his commitment to being available for his object of affection all times, asserting, “I’m just a call away”.
Set Me Free explores the theme of having to deal with the pressures of life while maintaining a relationship. Love Lust, the track after which the project is titled encapsulates all of the artist’s desire – a dire need to be known, in totality, by his person of affection – while the concept of their relationship still gets defined. The plot of the project progresses into All Good – a perfectly blended harmonious collaboration between Funbi and Kenyan veteran Singer & Songwriter, Karun – where both lovers eventually openly define the intricacies of their companionship with lyricism ranging from the sultry to the sublime.
The project progresses to Lead Me On, a record in which the artiste persona questions the intentions of his object of affection, caught in a quandary between the genuity of her love and the imbalances of her actions, a theme that flows into the concluding song on the project, Muse.
Ultimately, with Love Lust, Funbi presents a thematically cohesive project on which his original persona rubs off easily on its listener. He achieves this by providing thoughtful lyricism easily put together by an ardent and detailed vocal delivery on matching production. The project’s cover art, along with other promotional assets such as visualisers and a forthcoming short film all put the album in a very good place artistically and in relevance to the Afro-R&B culture in Nigeria and Africa.
