Getting dropped by a label is practically a rite of passage for an artist, but it's likely that
Laura Mvula
is the only one to receive the news by email after delivering a Top Ten U.K. debut and an Ivor Novello Award-winning follow-up, both of which were nominated for the Mercury Prize. That's where the singer, songwriter, and producer found herself in 2017. Four years later and with another major label,
Atlantic
instead of
Sony
, she rebounds with
Pink Noise
. It's a wounded if proud and defiant response that draws from vintage high-tech R&B and art pop -- the 1982-1987 era with greatest frequency -- with all sharp edges melted off. "Got Me" is all bounding romantic jubilance like
Michael Jackson
's "The Way You Make Me Feel." "Remedy" and "Pink Noise" work low-end cyclonic synthesizers recalling
the System
and
Kashif
.
INXS
-via-
Chic
guitar wriggles spring up in the latter and elsewhere. A soundtrack for a neon-rich film set in the mid-'80s would do well to feature "Safe Passage," an anthem of independence that gleams and pops, and the duet "What Matters," a tears-in-the-food-court love theme.
Mvula
's writing is typically to the contrary of what might otherwise sound like an escapist fantasy. The sting of rejection and betrayal, and regret over ceding control, are felt in many of the songs, though she's never so specific that the average listener can't relate. She laments "A provisional kindred soul/Another blow to the ego" in the prowling verses of "Conditional," confronts and teases a fraud in "Church Girl" with "How can you dance with the devil on your back," then delivers an unequivocal protest song with the urgent and scathing "Remedy." While all of those moments are remarkably powerful,
finds another gear for "Golden Ashes," a pulsing and towering ballad that could fill a stadium. Born of dejection, it takes aim at "them scary power people" yet alludes to not just survival but immortality, her voice more robust than ever. "Lemons into lemonade" is an understatement. ~ Andy Kellman