Let's just get away from it all today. Here's Lianne La Havas, her warm voice equally at home crooning and passionately belting, inviting a Paris audience (and you) to her private midnight world:
And here's the album version, with all the bells and whistles:
Lyrics here.
I've been captivated by La Havas' music since I first heard her debut album Is Your Love Big Enough. If you feel like exploring, try the title track, whose chorus -- "Is your love big enough for what's to come?" -- could very well be a challenge and exhortation for our times; the unflinchingly soul-baring "Lost & Found"; and the French film-inspired "Au Cinéma" (performed here with a touch of Stevie Wonder's "Master Blaster"). I love her follow-up album Blood just as much; listen to the lushly-orchestrated "Unstoppable," the buoyant "Green & Gold," the giddy groove of "What You Don't Do," and the funky "Grow," with its determined and hopeful lyrics: "Turn up the love / Turn up and watch us sing / As we grow / The future we don't know / Unless we do it together."
BONUS: Here's La Havas channeling Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin, and doing "Say a Little Prayer" just as much justice:
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Listen to the Spotify playlist here.
Watch the YouTube playlist here.