Kcee is Highlife's latest high priest on "Attention To Detail"

Life is always large and colourful with Kcee. The Five Star Music singer is a man who talks a big game, spends a big sum, and records music for the big crowd. Nothing is ever small for him. You either go loud or you go home. That’s the lifestyle choice that has also dictated the music that he makes. He moves from pop record to pop record, with emphasis on a new hit song. You want anything else? Go somewhere else. This is pop music exhibition.

And that’s why the music on “Attention To Detail” is mostly unidirectional. There’s an unwavering insistence on making music for the masses. Listening to this feels like watching Kcee walk into a room full of thousands of people and attempt to hug them all. Sometimes there’s a personal touch of brilliance, sometimes it feels like a breeze, a fleeting surface attempt at interacting with your best side.

The project comes 4 years after his previous outing on “Take Over”, which was led by power singles ‘Limpopo’, and ‘Pull over’ featuring Wizkid.

A lot has happened since 2013. Five Star Music isn’t exactly the label that it was many years ago. Various episodes of infighting, squabbling and public lawsuits have stripped it of the team which created the last project. Singer Harrysong, Producer Del’B, and Manager, Soso Soberekon; three key men who were instrumental in that project, have left the building, and a new team is in charge.

“Attention to Detail” deals with themes that’ll be familiar to anyone who follows pop music; God’s unrivalled blessings, sexy female affection and glorification, and dance music for the sake of it. Sometimes, he steps out of the script, but he doesn’t do that enough to alter the course of the project. This time around, it is more grandiose than usual, with bouncy Highlife production and Eastern tropes leading the way on the album’s 19-tracks. It’s an ambitious attempt, his longest album yet, and it wastes no time to bring you into its proposition.

‘Vanessa’ calls on the love of a woman, ‘High me’ documents the feelings she evokes, ‘Kwarangida’ offers her enjoyment beyond her imagination, while she returns the favour on ‘Sugar’. It’s a process that is unclear until after a few listens. Although unintentional, there’s a narrative at play here, a picture that doesn’t elude the singer. God gets his due too. The Most High opens the album on ‘Thank God’, has his name used in vain on ‘Oh my God, and receives his praise on the prayerful ‘Ji gi dem’.

To his credit, Kcee shows ambition and experimentation on “Attention To Detail.” Which in typical Kcee fashion, it’s either a hit or miss. His failure is comical with Trap music on Falz-featuring ‘My boo’, but samples Indian-influences admirably on ‘Whine for me’. ‘Oje’ carries his political ambition into the studio, and he returns with the soundtrack to his governorship aspiration in Anambra.

The guests are almost as high-end and elitist as they come. Falz fails to lift ‘My boo’, but Sauti Sol show up on ‘Whine for me’, to offer a Pan-African sprinkling into Kcee’s style. Multiple collaborator Phyno lends his bars and his vocals to two tracks, ‘Dance’ and ‘Obiageli.

However, with such unidirectional sonic delivery – and so many tracks – there is a stop on the album where Kcee almost becomes a misrepresentation of himself, notably on Fuji-inspired track ‘We go party’, as he hammers “Today we go party…sumo sumo mi ” in ill-fitting Yoruba, before a ragged vocal turn from Olamide, grabs the song and pushes it back to sunlight. You know, it’s a bit unhinged, but heck, it contributes to the album – and that’s why he is Kcee.

Rating: 3.5/5

Ratings

1-Dull2-Boring2.5-Average3-Worth Checking Out3.5-Hot4-Smoking Hot4.5-Amazing5-Perfection