The jazz and funk elements – highlighted by the trip hop reference – are driven mainly by Xeno’s soft-effected vocals that give the songs like lead single ‘Caramello’a truly lush tone.
Brit Xeno spent much of her adolescence and teenage years in South Africa which is purported by the album’s biography to have given her music a contrastingly global stance. The most tangible manifestation of this implied variance is that Xenoula deftly journeys a wide gambit of styles over this 11-song LP.
Opener ‘Chief Of Tin’ finds its form with a deeply compressed rhythm overlaid by Xeno doing her best impersonation of ‘90s Manchester trip hop duo Lamb. The next song on the record is ‘Luna Man’. It switches tone and influence stratospherically, as if Nouvelle Vague performed ‘When The Lion Sleeps Tonight’.
The glue that keeps this album together is the strength and vision of Xenoula. It leaves a lasting impression of an artist willing to push the boundaries.
7/10
