We put Yazmin Lacey in the “For fans of” line of our Rosie Lowe recommendation. We should probably explain ourselves.
We first knew Yazmin through When the Sun Dips 90 Degrees. Then we saw her at Urban Spree in Berlin, where any idea that her laid-back delivery meant she was taking it easy disappeared. She is a powerhouse. Her voice has warmth and smoke in it, but also grit, character and remarkable control.
We kept coming back to Voice Notes, her first full-length album. And lately, with neo-soul taking over our listening again, it felt like time to pass it on.
The album sounds loose in the way only very good musicians can sound loose. Listen to the drums on “Match in My Pocket”: they are so tight they seem to slip around the beat. Yazmin sings with that same freedom. The voice never needs to announce how much work it is doing. It carries the whole hour while jazz, soul, dub and lovers rock move around it.
“Bad Company” is our way in. Yazmin gives her doubts a name, Priscilla, and lets that difficult part of herself become funny, troublesome company. The album heads out into the night from there, then turns inward again. “Pieces” is impossible to ignore: a goodbye with enough space around it to let the hurt land. Near the end, “Legacy” remembers her grandmother, and “Sea Glass” takes everything to the water and lets it settle.
Yazmin told Apple Music that Voice Notes is a sound collage rather than a concept album. We hear what she means. These songs grew from different moments, conversations and recordings made over two years. Still, listening from beginning to end, we hear a journey: self-doubt, the freedom of being out late, love and its aftermath, then grief and the possibility of letting go. It is an arc without anyone drawing a thick line through it.
There is a family resemblance to records we’ve already loved here. Olive Jones has that ability to hold a room with a voice. In Rosie Lowe, we found grief still moving to a groove. Pip Millett belongs in this conversation too: tenderness delivered with enough edge to keep it honest. Yazmin brings her own restlessness to it. Even when the music settles into a warm groove, her mind keeps moving.
You could put Voice Notes on while cooking and have a very good evening. You could also let it play in the background on a commute. But give it headphones on the way somewhere you don’t especially want to go, and enjoy thoughts that sounds as though they only just occurred to her.
If neo-soul is your thing, this is an essential listen. If it isn’t, it’s time to change your mind.
Listen where you listen.
