Lady Zamar’s ‘Monarch’ excels on songwriting and production, but its length exposes its weaknesses.
Born Yamikani Janet Banda, Lady Zamar is a talented, multi-award winning South African singer-songwriter.
Word on the street says, ‘She is to South Africa what Tiwa Savage is to Nigeria.’ On June 21, 2019, she released her third studio album, Monarch. Her first two albums are, Cotton Candy and King Zamar.
In line with the second album, King Zamar, Monarch sees Lady Zamar continue her quest to make black people realize their royal lineage – as she told OkayAfrica.
Monarch is a 20-song experience that largely croons on the ever-interesting theme of love with R&B, afro-house, pop, EDM, Gqom, Kwaito and afro-fusion. Sometimes, one, two or more of these genres coexist on one song.
Monarch is excellent for…
Songwriting
Lady Zamar – This Is Love
Monarch is an anthology of love stories painted on one sonic canvas. In another universe, it could also be a multi-narrative, documenting the love stories of different characters with one ending.
While the most recurrent theme is of yearning for good love from an unwitting partner or hanging on to unhealthy love, there is a hue of brilliant songwriting to every song. Not once did Lady Zamar drop the ball for lazy expletives and adlibs.
Each line paints a meticulous picture; each song triggers a picture-esque imagination. ‘This is Love,’ is an afro-house song, yet it is a line-by-line chronicle of a dysfunctional love affair that an unnamed female character is determined to fight for.
There is no cluster, nor any questionable line on any song. Every lyric is a part of the larger story. Being the first song, it set the tone for each song on the entire album.
Lady Zamar – Adore (Visualiser)
On ‘Adore,‘ an attentive listener will get suprised by how a singer dropped these lines on just one song, “Money can buy many things, but it can’t buy love, happiness, joy, and peace. Money can get you place, honey it won’t get you any real kinda. And when you dissatisfied with all the lies, and see your crimson eyes start to reflect back to you and the stars of truth, come on, whisper…”
However, ‘Dangerous Love’ is bar the best song on Monarch for songwriting. It’s so good, it is a music video script.
Production
The producer(s) on Monarch are imaginative, meticulous and wonderful beatmakers. Even on songs you see as ‘filler,’ the production is impressive. Even when the songs sound similar, the production is still brilliant on a per song basis – please note that.
Those beats have multiple layers of percussion and strings. Each beat croons on melody that only astute instrumentation can birth. I like the use of guitars – especially the bass guitars on ‘This Is Love’ and ‘Adore.’
Lady Zamar – Dangerous Love (Visualiser)
Most producers are lazy when they find key melodies, but not those on Monarch. Their beats get better around the third verse. Every climax sends your jet-setting to other realms. What they did with the rhythmic chanting and bass riffs on ‘Dangerous Love‘ is simply impressive.
However, this credit is apparent when you judge the songs independently.
Weak points
Length
On one hand, Monarch is too lengthy. It discombobulates the experience, intermittently overshadows the quality on every song and wears the listener out. But on the other hand, I sympathize with Lady Zamar.
She was probably to invested in and connected to the creative process that she struggled to detach herself from the emotion she felt while crafting all 20 songs. So, she retained all the songs. It’s the curse of emotionally attached creative.
Uniformity
Individually, the songs are good. But as part of an album, there is an excess of similar-sounding songs. This weakness is exposed by the album’s length.
Lady Zamar – Donatella (Visualiser)
On a balance of sound, songwriting and theme/topic, Monarch could have done without ‘Sunshine,’ ‘Donatella,’ ‘More and More’ ‘Addiction,’ ‘Mary Jane,‘ ‘Say Yes,’ and ‘Low Low.’
Those songs could have been ‘This is Love,’ ‘Adore‘ or any other song for that matter. But if the above listed songs had been cut, we would have had sufficient diversity that mostly celebrates Lady Zamar as a brilliant songwriter, running on great beats.
As I noted earlier, the beats are good when you judge them independently. But then, even though the melodies are different, the afro-house beats – which significantly make up Monarch – sound too similar.
It sometimes feels like you’re listening to the same thing over and again.
Overkill of love
Lady Zamar – Sunshine (Visualiser)
As noted earlier, each song is brilliantly written. But when you consider them as part of this album, there is an excess of interchangeable songs/topics/scenarios.
The consequence of the above listed weaknesses is that while each song is brilliantly written, there is an overkill of dysfunctional love stories. There are more than eight songs that repeat the exact sentiments of ‘Adore.’
Track list
The consequence of this means the track list is quite weak.
Title: Monarch
This one is quite puzzling. The album is titled ‘Monarch,‘ but in the end, one questions what is so monarchical about the songs.
There is a disconnect. It gets more puzzling when you realize that Lady Zamar told OkayAfrica that the album title comes from her intention to celebrate the regal nature of the black race.
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
Tracklist: 0.5/2
Songwriting: 1.4/2
Production: 1.5/2
Enjoyability and Satisfaction: 1.0/2
Execution: 0.9/2
Total:
5.