Agoyi Yetunde’s 'Forever' is a Beautiful Piece of Afro-fusion

Forever is a song about eternal love, and Agoyi Yetunde is able to tackle this topic with less extravagance than one might be used to, giving the track a less obvious edge that sees the meaning come across as something that slowly gains momentum rather than as something that hits you from out of nowhere.

That is, in part, the charm of the song, as it is a welcome change from the otherwise over-tuned Afro-fusion tracks that have started to sound suspiciously similar to one another as of late, with the appeal to mass-chart potential dulling the variety of the music as a whole.

The production is subtle, managing to allow for the instruments to add enough pizazz to the performance without them overpowering the arrangement, thus rendering it bland. Everything blends seamlessly, a sign of the production team’s skill, as they have managed to capture the exact sound that Agoyi Yetunde wanted to put across with Forever.

The vocals follow suit, being only minimally present in the mix but never becoming boring, with the lyrical performance managing to get across as passionate and precise enough to draw the listener in without forcing a particular message down their throat.

What can’t be ignored when discussing Forever is its relatively relaxed pace, which avoids trying to overdo things by adding a particularly dramatic segment to the mix, instead opting to rely on the sheer power of the performance to draw the listener in. It does so by first capturing their attention with the given arrangement and then relying on the steady addition of new elements to continue holding it until the song’s end. It is the kind of performance that makes you feel pulled into the stream of the music rather than pushed into it.

The song's most endearing quality, in my opinion, is the comfort of familiarity, as the song manages to capture the meaning of love and loyalty in a way that feels universal. The music is unifying, making you think of your own experiences without forcing you to immediately compare them to anything else other than your own life.

Forever is a song that makes you feel good about the kinds of music Afro-fusion can be. It captures a feeling of familiarity and comfort, relying on the well-known to propel the performance rather than trying to be overly original with each passing second.

With that being said, it becomes somewhat of a disappointment to realise that there is not much in the song that significantly differentiates it from the rest of the Afro-fusion track list that has dominated the modern African music charts in the past several years. Afro-fusion fans looking to experience something new in their listening journey may have to look elsewhere, waiting for the next big thing to come around and shake the scene up a little, but other than that, there is little one can fault this performance for. It is easy to charm anyone, and Forever charmed me with the sheer power of its subtle approach.

It must be noted, however, that there is little to fault in the song as it stands. In fact, this entire review is rather focused on the positives of the production, showing just how much potential the piece has with very little wasted energy. As such, it becomes difficult to find one’s criticism of choice when discussing a performance as endearing and welcoming as Forever.

There is room for improvement, which is why I would not give this song a perfect score, but Agoyi Yetunde has done a truly remarkable job putting this bit of Afro-fusion magic together, capturing the listener in a most personal of ways, connecting to them without being pushy in the slightest. It is a truly remarkable piece that manages to both deliver on its promise and avoid overhyping itself in the process, and that is something worth noting.