REVIEW: Sess - Spotlight EP
Sess is a Nigerian superproducer, who has paid his dues with hits and albums to boot. In 2019, he released Omo Muda, his debut album. It was a potpourri of genres to the level of experimentation that many can’t attempt. On ‘Smooth Operator,’ he also sang by himself.
He also featured on ‘Brother’s Keeper’ off Falz’s Headies-winning album, Moral Instruction. The only reason Sess started producing was to soundtrack his own music, as a Law student who couldn’t afford to pay producers, who also didn’t get his sound anyways.
On his sophomore project, Spotlight, Sess - who is now a married man and podcaster, surges into life. Soundtracked by a string of impressive instances of production - one produced by Pheelz, Sess crafts music around a string of exciting topics. More importantly, he is a performing artist on all the songs.
In a surprise move, he even throws shots at a faceless, unfaithful woman on ‘Thunda,’ and he was aided by an amazing verse from Falz. While Sess mostly focuses on topics around love and romance, ‘Spotlight’ is expressive of Sess’ ambitions as he made this EP. He puts the ‘Spotlight’ on himself and creates a burnt offering to stardom, hoping he would be granted star drips.
The result is ‘Trouble,’ a conversational Bashment record, which follows a concept of Sess and his friend, Simi, playing a suitor and a ‘suitee’ respectively. ‘Spotlight’ is a dope record, ‘International Love’ is a perfect blend of title, topic, production and feature, but ‘Beautiful’ is the best record on this EP.
If there is one record to be playlisted heavily, it should be ‘Beautiful.’ It has a ludicrously high ceiling and it takes Yemi Alade from one point to another - offering a different insight into the superstar. Then there is the sound engineering and closing guitar solo, which strongly elevates the record. Sess might actually want to explore a full R&B EP.
That said, Sess’ EP struggles to find a centre, mostly because Sess doesn’t have an established rep as a(n) - pop - artist. If the EP had been filled with records like ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Beautiful,’ he could have established a scalable identity. Nonetheless, everybody has to start somewhere and this isn’t a half-bad debut, as a ‘new’ recording artist.
His cover art is another creative win.
Ratings: /10
• 0-1.9: Flop
• 2.0-3.9: Near fall
• 4.0-5.9: Average
• 6.0-7.9: Victory
• 8.0-10: Champion
Pulse Rating: /10
6.5 - Victory
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