Adora Odili – Picking Up Flowers Inside (2021)
German-born artist and musician Adora Odili brings into being her latest soulful, jazzy and iridescent track, ‘Picking Up Flowers Inside’. Born in Germany to Nigerian parents, Odili has never let any one genre define her music. Her talent was nurtured by her father’s 4,000 records with influences ranging from the likes of Tina Turner, Amy Winehouse, Aretha Franklin, Erykah Badu and Ella Fitzgerald. Odili’s new single begins casually with her speaking and laughing over cymbals tapping and a funky melody that gradually grows bassier and more textured over time. Her voice is smooth and seductive as she says “see you later” and begins to sing in a deep, husky tone, “you’re like sunlight in my mind”.
The song takes its time, it’s toe-tapping beat is never in any rush as Odili ambles along to psychedelic RnB sounds. There is an improvisational element to her lyrics as if her words are being plucked from a free-flowing kind of consciousness moment by moment. ‘Picking Up Flowers Inside’ speaks to an intense, giddy, energetic and euphoric sensation. Its whole vibe is visceral, exuding the feeling of a brain in love, burning with magnetism and dopamine. Blues-influenced guitar underlies the musicians obscure vocals, ever adding to the sense of warmth the track generates. A crunchy bass trumpets along steadily adding a murky or foggy quality and conjuring images of a room filled with burning incense. At least in my mind.
Odili’s discography, which spans several decades, draws together elements of jazz, pop, soul and indie with some electronic overtones. The artist is well known for her hit club song ‘I Don’t Know What to Do’ – a collaboration with Chestnut of Are Snoek. Her latest track ‘Picking Up Flowers Inside’, which was released on July 13, is a mesmerising saunter into the bewildering and sometimes hazy fields of love and desire.
Find out more about Adora Odili on her Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Spotify.
