CELIA ALBUM REVIEW: CONSERVATIVE TIWA MAY HAVE SHED SOME WIDTH BUT SHE STILL HAS CLASS

There are pop divas that get left behind for no other reason than they stay true to themselves.The older they get,the more matured and less commercially appealing their music gets.The ones that dare to be inorganically adventurous usually have to deal with the problem that you can't be anyone better than you.

Creative flexibility has always been one of Tiwa's main attributes so that certainly isn't the problem considering she recorded the out-of-the-box 49-99 less than a year ago.Miss Savage perhaps just wanted to sing and not worry about anything else on Celia and its a really good thing that she can sing.The album-opening Save My Life is the highlight of plain and simple Tiwa; a classy mid-tempo track you can vibe to on your seat or on the dance floor.Temptationand Dangerous Love were pre-album singles that already prepared us for a Tiwa more inclined to slow things down and lean towards her sonorous side.Though Pakalamisi with London singer,Hamzaa and Attention are unmoving and raise reasonable doubts as to the sustainability of this version of her, Park Well featuring Davido reiterates why no version of her should be written off.Its effortlessly classy and easy on the ears.

Fans of the jumpy and sassy Tiwa might say Celia is a mid life crisis for the most part they hope she will overcome in no time but 2 personal and to quite a degree,introspective songs therein suggest this Tiwa is here to stay.Rather than a mid life crisis,it may very well be a 40 year old lady no longer keen on stretching as far she used to.Us is an emotional lady looking back at the experience with her former husband and accepting that perhaps they just weren't meant to be without blaming anyone for it.Celia's Song is a song thanking God for her mother and all she has been through.(Celia is her mother's name incase you haven't heard already).

Koroba may not be razz Tiwa at 100 but she hits the bullseye on Ole featuring Naira Marley.A soft yet cheeky and absorbing song rendered on an inch-perfect Rexxie beat.She also comes correct on Bombay where she solicits Burna boy's beau, Stefflon Don and Otedola crooner, Dice Ailes.Tiwa lives up to her African Bad Gyal moniker here.She talks the talk and has Stefflon Don spitting pidgin for the very first time ever.

Tiwa's range has always stood her out from the rest and though we see a more conservative version on Celia, she goes for the extraordinary in Glory and to great effect i must say.

She may lack the intensity she had in 2015 when she released the R.E.D album with guests like D'Prince,Dr Sid,Iceberg Slimm,Busy Signal and Olamide to help produce a rich and commercially correct album but she still gets the job done.