Andreya Triana – Life in Colour

Life In Colour comes four years on from Andreya Triana’s last album, and nine since her 2010 Bonobo-produced debut Lost Where I Belong. Over 11 tracks the London-born singer-songwriter explores womanhood, love and independence with rousing messages of leaping over society’s boundaries. An album more vulnerable or visceral than she has produced before, Triana’s smoky, Kelis-like vocals are as ever the centrepiece. However, at times they are the driving force of a work that is overly emulative of her pop-soul predecessors.

Woman is an anthemic, attention-grabbing opener, driven by multicoloured percussion and thundering drums. Subsequent uptempo tracks Freedom and Beautiful People fall short in comparison. With lyrics leaning on recycled metaphors and overemphasised handclaps, the similarity of the two leaves them flirting with filler status.

Triana is perhaps best known for piercing through DJ/producer Breach’s thumping house on 2013's top ten hit Everything You Never Had. But it’s when propped up by little more than piano or guitar chords that she’s arguably at her best. Do That For You is a breezy folk-soul cut characterised by the catchy, effortless guitar bass that gives it its foundations.

Album highlight How Deep My Love Goes is a fervent expression of endless affection from Triana to a loved one. She promises them invincibility against the world’s natural elements, boasting of the power love can bring them. Initially it pauses the album’s pace before a storming middle eight that crescendos into the final chorus creating a gentle hurricane that exemplifies the modest but assured power of Triana’s voice.

Her gritty vocals break through the confines of harsh drums and deep brass on Broke, as Triana explores the opulence offered by love and hope when you’re skint. It’s raw and rugged but glimmering in real-life soul. Simple piano-ballad closer It’s Gonna Be Alright is a tender note of optimism for the future, rounding off the album’s bleaker moments with hopeful resolution. It's pleasant and sincerely sentimental, but you can’t help but feel like it's something you’ve heard before.

Life In Colour furthers Triana’s sophomore venture into the pop-soul region comfortably inhabited by Lianne La Havas or Jessie Ware. Like their efforts it will adorn the atmosphere of a Starbucks any day, but there's little here that offers the genre anything new, or to leave you choking on your coffee. What is certain is, if Andreya Triana were buying you a drink, it would definitely be made by an artisan, but it’s more likely to be an Americano than a Chai.

Listen to: Do That For You, How Deep My Love Goes, Broke