Omah Lay’s ‘Clarity of Mind’: The lavish hedonism of a star searching for ease

Omah Lay’s mental state has always formed the bedrock of his artistry. He’s a man who enjoys sharing the inner turmoil most stars keep locked within.

On his sophomore album ‘Clarity of Mind,’ he presents himself as a man who has searched far and wide for mental clarity. After highlighting his complex relationship with fame, romance, and life in his acclaimed debut LP, the singer has walked a path of recovery, and for Omah Lay, clarity comes from acceptance.

Across 12 tracks, the Port Harcourt-born singer shares a full understanding of his own desires, ambition, ego, and purpose. Unlike his debut album, he’s not depressive about his fragile mental state; rather, he takes comfort in it and turns to sexual adventurism, psychedelia, reticence, and bravado.

The road to his sophomore project wasn’t the smoothest. After having to remake the entire album because his sound was stolen, the paranoia from this experience became a building block, and ego, both artistic and personal, became the cement. When you combine these, you have the paranoid superstar and damaged lover boy of the Aubrey “Drake” Graham kind.

The album documents the lavish hedonism of a man who has turned to pleasure in search of ease. On this album, Omah Lay spills the wanton desires of a star who’s exploring life from a paranoid, reticent, and brusque lens. Sex, wealth, and ego are recurring themes that all intertwine with expensively produced pop records. 

He preoccupies himself with singing about the good life like a star who is no longer conflicted in enjoying the pleasures fame can afford. On ‘Clarity of Mind,’ he doesn’t only want this pleasure; he appears to have developed an appetite for it. Like a man who has robbed himself of pleasure, he goes above and beyond to make up for lost time.

When he sings about sex, marijuana, and pleasure, it’s with passionate melodies over lavish production that captures his wild appetite and his desire to document it in vibrant pop music. On the sticky melodies of ‘Jah Jah Knows’, he asks Bisi not to wait for him as he’s too damaged to love. He reiterates the message on Tempoe’s swingy production of ‘Don’t Love Me’.

His sexual desire floats to the surface on the 3-step Afrohouse ‘Water Spirit’ where he admits to the obviousness of his yearnings but insists he doesn’t seek to bed every woman his superstar status brings his way. Sex, not love, is a consistent and coherent message on the album.

He splurges for it ‘Don’t Love Me,’ he ponders over it on ‘Water Spirit,’ he lusts over it on ‘Waist’, and even his paranoia can’t stifle his desire to enjoy himself on the electronic dance production of ‘Julia,’ and the breezy Gyration tinged ‘Canada Breeze’.

On the album press tour, Omah Lay has been uncharacteristically chatty, especially about his sex life. “I think I’m addicted to women who squirts,” he says at his Paris listening party. Again, it’s the sex, and he almost can’t get enough of it, and he intends to spare no one the details.

Like Kanye West, Omah Lay might have fallen in love with a porn star, and he’s unabashed about this. On ‘Mary Go Round,' he allows himself to be consumed by the waterspirit that took over his soul on ‘Soso,’ only this time, he has no pain to trade; he only wishes to share the burning pleasures beneath his bedroom sheets.

‘Clarity of Mind’ signals a growth in Omah Lay’s artistry and person, although this might be lost on listeners because he traded his depth in thought for supposedly superficial pop music.

This writer believes it would have been uninspiring for him to make another album moaning about his mental health. He needed to communicate his state of mind without taking it from a depressive point of view. He seems to also understand this, as he elected to share the growth he underwent and the ease he has found in pleasure.

Omah Lay appears to have accepted the chaos in his mind, and he finds beauty in it by making an enjoyable and cohesive album that underscores his talent and status and advances his agenda on the global pop market.

He has found a way to grow amidst life's travails. He has gone from the smooth-faced Port Harcourt 22-year-old on ‘Get Layd’ to a complex young man who is now ready to take another talent under his wing. Elmah, his first-ever signee, joins him on the lo-fi cut ‘Coping Mechanism’ where he paused from his hedonism to accept a moment of pain, hurt, and his endless pursuit of inner peace.

Growth comes from a deep knowledge of self, and Omah Lay, who has admitted to possessing a large ego of his won flaunts it on ‘I Am’, the 3-step Afro house party starter that’s an emphatic statement of his gifts. Perhaps ego is also why he chose to almost entirely run solo on the album, although one could say that he doesn’t need much help across 12 tracks that took almost 3 years to make.

Several things are clear from this album, chief among them that Omah Lay’s artistry is anything but static; he can pull at the heartstrings, and he can also make you dance.

Some will say the album is about hedonism; that he only sang about sex, psychedelia, and flaunted his ego. But what if, for Omah Lay, hedonism is therapy, and he has conveyed this state of mind with the clarity and honesty required to deliver a vibrant Afropop album that will advance his global mainstream agenda.

Perhaps the biggest issue the project faces is the bold declaration that preceded it. Omah Lay’s claim that it’s the “greatest album in the 20-year history of Afrobeats”. 

He can’t hold it against listeners for having the high expectations he set with his chest-thumping. He did say this album would be proof of him being the greatest of his generation. But then, when did it become a crime for artists to believe they are the greatest? 

Ratings: /10
• 0-1.9: Flop
• 2.0-3.9: Near fall
• 4.0-5.9: Average
• 6.0-7.9: Victory
• 8.0-10: Champion

Pulse Rating: /10
Album Sequencing: 1.5/2
Songwriting, Themes, and Delivery: 1.4/2
Production: 1.7/2
Enjoyability and Satisfaction: 1.4/2
Execution: 1.5/2

TOTAL - 7.5