Uniquely cosmopolitan,
Halima
was born in New Jersey, raised in Lagos and London, and is based in Brooklyn. She bought her first guitar at the age of ten and coped with her itinerant circumstances by throwing herself into music. Genres, styles, and scenes across the continents fueled her creativity, and she took more inspiration from
Joan Armatrading
and
Tracy Chapman
, pioneering Black women artists who freely avoided being pigeonholed based on race and gender.
Sweet Tooth
is
's debut album for
Drink Sum Wtr
, the label that snapped her up after a clutch of singles and an EP dating back to 2018. The move was transparent from 2024's
Exu
EP, her first release for the label, and this sees her continue to fuse progressive R&B with left-field pop that takes in Afrobeats and U.K. garage with flashes of a traditional singer/songwriter approach.
starts invitingly with "Omoge," a gently pattering ballad in which
uses the titular Yoruban term of endearment to console, admire, and yearn for her object of affection. Loved-up energy flows through much of what follows. In the scampering "Eleven Eleven,"
is agitated and work exhausted until she's struck by new love, letting loose a golden second hook that begins with "She's in my bed" and ends with "Oh shit, now I'm involved," all startled elation. "Eau de Vie," soundtracking a night after the morning after, slips and slides with an air of seduction. A few scenes later, over elegiac synthesizer wash,
is a mix of emotions, entreating her partner to not leave but making it known that "I could hold you down, but I won't put on a show." Her spirit quickly lifts with the Afro-Caribbean dancefloor delight "Cocoa Body," the most sensual track, pairing a desirous vocal with lightly tumbling drums and a cluster of synthesized mallets. The sounds of the album, produced by
with the likes of
Mikey Freedom Hart
(
Jon Batiste
,
Taylor Swift
) and
Corey Smith-West
Ivy Sole
Musclecars
), continue to change shape in the second half. "Feel About It" brings together
Timbaland
-like twitching drums, spiky electric keys, and swaying strings. "Callum" isn't much more than lapping percussion, spare bass tones, and fine baubles, its tottering motion accentuating
's stupor as she phones a friend for more than a ride from the party: "I won't hide my glow no more...every day I'm writin' love songs." And how. ~ Andy Kellman