African Giant David ‘Davido’ Adeleke’s sophomore album, “A Good Time” has recently been certified platinum by the Recording Industry of South Africa.
The singer also received plaques for singles off his album which was released in November 2019. His song ‘Blow My Mind’ featuring Chris Brown was certified platinum while ‘Risky’ featuring Popcaan went double platinum.
The 17 track album was teased and promoted weeks before its release, building anticipation among Nigerians and even worldwide.
Moments after the release, two tracks on the album, ‘Animashaun’ and ‘Yonda’ started trending. With #AGoodTime, Davido’s music dominated social media platforms. It is ironic to note that although the superstar has been in the music industry for a decade, this is the second studio album he has released.
The album portrays Davido’s creativity and strategic power as a singer, however, it also raises questions about the substance of most albums in the Nigerian music industry. After the release of his first album, Omo Baba Olowo in 2012, he also released a 6-track EP titled, Son of Mercy in 2016.
Since the release of the album, both negative and positive criticisms have trailed the artist’s work. On one end of the spectrum are people who think the album is a game-changer and the best thing to rend the airways. While on the other end are the critics who find faults with every track that the album contains.
It is not uncommon to discover that most Nigerian artists do not know much about creating an album and what differentiates it from a single. Therefore, their albums are usually a mismatch of different rhythms and sounds, thereby lacking the ability to garner the attention of the audience. It appears that Davido took his time and created a work that flowed together, achieving uniformity without losing its unique sound.
The Good Time is a collection of already recorded songs, brought together to form the album. It also clearly shows that a lot of thought and effort was put into creating the tracklist. It further solidifies Davido’s ability to create good music.
He was able to bring his vision to life on the album. The tracks laid emphasis on popular themes like love, money, success, appreciation, vanity and other prevalent issues affecting the average person.
He was able to employ the services of producers and songwriters that greatly helped to bring his album together based on his vision. However, he ended up getting stuck on one path as his songs followed the same direction without deviation.
Although the tracks are relatively enjoyable, the presence of released singles like ‘Company’ and ‘Green Light Riddim’ made it lack the element of surprise that would have drawn the attention of listeners and kept them engaged. Some songs on the album peaked as singles and therefore, could not provoke the necessary excitement that the album should have garnered.
The lyrics of the songs are all praiseworthy and enjoyable. However, the production of the album flopped massively as there was an absence of a new attention-grabbing song. While their attention was directed at unifying the tracks, Davido and his team failed to deliver on different sounds that would have really uplifted the album.
The album was opened with an ‘intro’ that set the tone of the rest of the tracks. The slow and mellow tempo had sweet melodies and the singer was able to deliver a killer second verse. Next came ‘1 milli’, a nice but bland song that can be easily forgotten.
Though the tracks flowed well into one another and the lyrics were good, the songs all had a recurring sound. The third track, ‘Check Am’ has a rhythm that is reminiscent of acoustic sounds from the 80s. Although the beat is noticeably faster, it shares the same quality as the first two songs.
Next comes ‘Disturbance’, a track based on a man’s attempt to woo a woman. Though it has a beat that encourages listeners to dance, it maintains the same average rhythm of most popular songs today. The next track, ‘If’ also followed the same path.
As the sixth track of the album, ‘D&G’ which features Summer Walker was highly entertaining. However, giving the number of tracks in the album, it is safe to say that most people would be expecting to hear something captivating at this point which, unfortunately, was not delivered.
This is not to say that the tracks are all bad as they are all rather pleasant to hear. They just needed a bit more substance to become songs that would warrant people replaying them over and over again. ‘Get To You’, the next song on the list is an R&B track that has a bit of South African vibe though it won’t be getting a spot on most people’s playlist. Next is ‘Risky’ which is phenomenal but does not really strike any chords.
A song that features a fair bit of excellence is ‘Sweet In The Middle’ which features Zlatan, World and Naira Marley. The presence of these other artists garnered a lot of anticipation from their fans. The R&B and afrobeat fusion can be easily liked by people all over the world, though some of the artists fell short of the standard expected of them.
A remixed version of ‘Fall’ is then followed by the track titled ‘Green Light Riddim’ which has a similar sound with ‘Sweet In The Middle’. The next song ‘Big Picture’ is a filler that does not carry much weight.
‘One Thing’ has a dancehall beat and showcases the expertise of the producer while ‘Assurance’ seemed to have been a wrong addition to the album. ‘Blow My Mind’ featuring Chris Brown retains its spot as a masterpiece.
‘Company’ features good beats, lyrics, and production. ‘Animashaun’ has a religious theme that never fails to be relatable to Nigerians. ‘Yonda’ is also delivered in the Yoruba language.
Although the album was able to present tracks with a collective sound, it lacked the element that would have taken it from good to groundbreaking. The length of the tracklist might have not done the album any good as some of the songs were better off as bonuses. However, the album clearly shows that African Giant Davido is a force to be reckoned with in Nigeria’s music industry.
