The self-appointed Queen of Private Amapiano Babalwa M recently released her sophomore EP Pisces, a follow-up to her 2021 full-length studio album Aluta Continua and 2020’s Bayede, her joint EP alongside Kelvin Momo.
Babalwa’s Pisces is a seven-track project tailored with the easy vibe of archetypal private school piano embellished with R&B and afrosoul sensibilities. Keeping the album’s sonic cruise control at a pace favourable to Babalwa’s dainty and fairy-esque voice, Pisces features production from frequent collaborator and one of South Africa’s finest piano minds Kelvin Momo, Stixx, and Baby S.O.N. With a playback time of 46 minutes, the EP stretches the concept of what a short-length project should be as the offering packs features from songbirds Nia Pearl, Bassie, and Sia Mzizi, all of whom provide strength and depth to Babalwa’s soft and relatively thinner voice.
Babalwa, on her album, stays close to herself, with Pisces being a searching body of work of intuitive expression of the self. The vocalist hardly ever looks outside, her songwriting a tightly woven yarn of sure-footed thoughts and verdicts.
When she isn’t heating up her emotions in the furnace of her heart and beating them into the shape of red-hot yearning as she does on “Mehlomadala”, she’s assuming a prayerful stance and proclaiming self-sufficiency in the knowledge that she’s loved and protected by a higher power as she portrays on “Izithembiso”. On the percussion-bookended and R&B-touched “Pholisa”, she talks a good game to her disgruntled lover’s heart inflamed with indignation arising from bad treatment, while she employs the same plaintive tone on “Phendula”, now trying to appeal to the gods for an answer to a prayer.
Listen to “Phendula” (with Kelvin Momo feat. Sia Mzizi):
The EP is modeled as a well-oiled system of different-sized cogwheels, from a vocal and musical point-of-view. There’s no part of the extended play that feels clumpy, and none of the features – consisting of serious powerhouses – undercut Babalwa’s contribution as the lead artist with her endearing vocal performances. A grand exhibit of this wonder can be found on “Phendula”, where Babalwa and Mzizi function as a yin-yang, braiding a one-minded prayer with their complementary pipes without making the song sound like a power struggle. The singer understands her place, not only within the album but also within the context of her being a vessel – she hardly overplays her hand and the security she evinces is evident in her magnanimity concerning the spotlight.
Pisces is a two-course EP which caters for themes such as erotic love and spiritual awareness. In its simplicity, it addresses the longings that come with the human condition and all its searing limitations while still upholding the ideology that one is more than meets eye and that there are realms of life protected by padlocks that only accept the keys of prayers and divine intervention.
