Right now, so many things are out of our control – global events, elections, a health diagnosis, losing a loved one or news you’re waiting on. As individuals, we can feel lonely and disconnected when life gets too much.
Many of us listen to music when we feel like this because it can help us feel seen and understood. Acclaimed Nigerian-American singer/songwriter Aisha Badru makes folk music that aims to be medicinal and soothe emotions. Her songs are so relatable because she turns tangled human experiences into simple truths through her vivid, introspective lyrics. Her vocals are delicate and as sweet as honey.
Aisha has been making music for around ten years. Her background story is that three and a half years into college, she dropped out, bought a guitar, and spent the whole summer learning how to play it in her bedroom. She gave herself a year to focus on music. During that time, she self-released her own EP, Vacancy, in 2015. One of the tracks, “Waiting Around,” caught the interest of the advertising world and was selected for a Volkswagen viral campaign.
Her debut album, Pendulum, was released in 2018 and has been followed by six EPs. The last, Learning To Love Again, was released in 2023. Her meaningful music has captured a large community of fans—to date, Aisha has over 135 million total music streams and 440k monthly listeners, with critical praise from the likes of Line of Best Fit, NPR Music, and more.
“I’ve always sort of felt torn,” Aisha admits, “between wanting to be someone who is very much a singer-songwriter and being recognized in the wellness space.” With her new album, The Sun Still Rises, she does both.
“A Little Mad” opens the album with sombre piano notes and melancholy cello and is about life on the hamster wheel of modern times. How we should be more compassionate towards ourselves by switching off from life’s noise: “We’re all a little mad, ain’t we?/ We’ve all be feeling bad lately/Same shit but a different shovel/Trying to solve the same puzzle”. Most of us will relate to the lyrics in the second verse, which speaks of us scrolling through our phones mindlessly when we get a moment to ourselves rather than relaxing properly. However, the lightness in Aisha’s vocals doesn’t allow the song to be hopeless; instead, it encourages us to change our lives for our well-being. It’s an excellent song and an album highlight.
“Boundaries” is about self-preservation and is the sparsest song on the album. Aisha’s breathy vocal is the centrepiece, accompanied by just some fingerstyle guitar: “I’d rather be alone/Spend the weekend at home/Turn off my phone/Light some sage, run a bath/Make some tea and relax/Silence at last”.
Set against a background of gentle acoustic guitar, Aisha’s vocal is soothing on the warm and enchanting “Life To Live”, which encourages us to slow down, listen to our hearts, lean in and do what makes us happy. It is a sweet, positive song with a dazzling, uplifting chorus: “It’s your life to live/If you want to leave then go/Run off the beaten path/Smell every single rose” whilst her latest single “In The Making” continues the theme of self-discovery and is also a song of personal development. The lyrics are open and honest – how humans are all fumbling through life and are all works in progress.
It has a swaying melody and flashes of Americana. Aisha bares her soul as she accepts she is ever evolving: “I’m breaking through every mould and expectation/Like when fire heats the sand/Where one form ends a new one begins/I am always in a state of creation”.
The ethereal “Side Of The Moon” is an uplifting song of reassurance – that we all matter and have a purpose: “You are here/You have a purpose/Your heart is hurting/But it will be worth it/The tide is rising/It’s pulling you under/Once it subsides it will make you stronger”. We can often feel insignificant as we look up at the stars, and Aisha affirms this with the celestial, glistening musical arrangements.
“Tunnel Vision” continues the theme of reassurance and offers hope to those who feel they are getting nowhere. The lyrics are heartfelt, as is Aisha’s voice initially, in the company of a muted drum and guitar. The instrumentation gradually builds and opens up in the chorus lyrically and musically with soul-stirring percussion and synths: “Right now, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel/It’s hard to perceive that you’re almost there/ I know that it feels like an endless struggle/ I promise the view is better from here”.
The short but sweet titular track “The Sun Still Rises” opens with warm guitar notes and radiates a hopeful, optimistic atmosphere. It’s almost a meditation finishing with an “om”. It’s impossible to listen to Aisha without closing your eyes, which is such a restorative feeling. This song is so peaceful and is a reminder that whatever darkness we are going through, one of the certainties in life will be that the forces of nature will go on and then, perhaps so should we: “And the sky was so magnificent blue/The waters sparkled, and the flowers bloomed/I thought I’d fall apart for you/But if the sun still rises then I will too”.
In the hushed pop of “Thankful To Be Here,” Aisha sings of gratitude despite the ebbs and flows of life and the passing of time. “Finding Our Way is a buoyant affirmation that looks towards the promise of the future, conveyed with a bouncy, folky beat and jaunty banjo.
The album closes with an instrumental song, “The Calm (664Hz)”. 664Hz is a frequency used for healing fatigue. Josh Frigo is a multi-instrumentalist based in Nashville who produced most of The Sun Still Rises and specialises in creating binaural beats. Aisha naturally gravitated towards him because combining these tones can soothe the mind. It certainly feels like a track on a meditative “sleep” playlist. It’s beautifully cinematic and expansive, and its minimalist soundscape does calm the synapses. A singular piano note on repeat creates anticipation before piano notes twinkle and sparkle, awakening the song and evoking feelings of a sunrise.
The Sun Still Rises is devoted to the immeasurable power of stillness and reflection and is certainly a cathartic listen – it soothes the soul, warms the heart and heals the mind. The musical arrangements are simple, but Aisha adds emotional depth with her velvety vocals and introspective lyrics. The Sun Still Rises is a lovely, compassionate collection of affirmations. Whilst no music can take away our problems, Aisha reminds us to enjoy life while solving them and reassures us everything will be okay.
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