“Welcome to my body, I know it’s nice to meet it,” she sings softly on Naked, a sultry slow jam which couldn’t sound more 70s Philadelphia if it had been conjured up by Gamble and Huff. Exuberance abounds.
Old songs become springboards for more current sounds and concerns.
You hear snatches of everyone from Lauryn Hill (Break Up Twice) to the Beastie Boys (Grrrls).
Killer groove About Damn Time sounds so much like vintage Chic, it had me checking the writing credits for Nile Rodgers’s name.
“Turn up the music, turn down the lights, I got a feelin’ I’m gon’ be alright,” she sings on the chorus, before rapping the second verse and ending with multiple repetitions of “I’m comin’ out tonight” – a new dance anthem for Lizzo’s huge gay following.
When her vocals soar, it transports you to the golden age of soul.
Disco dance song Everybody’s Gay is about feeling unthreatened in gay clubs.
On the chorus, she assures us, “It’s a happy place in here, baby, you’re safe”, you can “take your mask off.”
Lizzo’s lyrics are big on acceptance, except for love rats. Grrrls has the line “I’m-a go Lorena Bobbitt on him” – a reference to the wife who sliced off her husband’s manhood.
Surely not something to encourage?
There is wit here, filth (“the mister has a monster”) and celebration of her size. “I’m a big girl, can you take it?” she asks on Naked.
A big girl with huge talent, a Goliath-sized personality and more hooks than a river bank full of anglers.
