(October 9, 2021) It’s a sad fact of life that talented and focused women artists often confront people who see them as an object, in spite of everything else they bring to the table. Multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter Adeline brings a lot to the table, as SoulTrackers learned over the summer when we featured her sensual, mid-tempo ballad “9” on a First Listen.
The French-Caribbean singer returns with “Stages,” her new single from the excellent EP Adi Oasis. The tune deploys the tactic of enveloping a story with a serious message within a bouncy and joyous musical arrangement that Adeline delivers in a jazzy vocal performance that just soars. The story is centered around a studio date where the focused Adeline is confronted by an engineer or a producer who has his mind on trying to make another kind of date. Adeline and her collaborator, hip-hop artist KAMAUU are having no part of it.
They are there to do business and they tell him that he can either deal with that or get dealt with. “I’m just tryna be serious/Not trying to be no stereotype/No I’m not delirious/I know when they tell me lies,” Adeline sings near the end of the track. The song is empowering both because it shows Adeline as a singer who knows her value who is willing to take agency and stand up for herself, while KAMAUU’s rap presents him as an ally who intervenes when he witnesses the inappropriate behavior. “Stages” is a good and timely track from a talented artist. Check it out here.
By Howard Dukes
Adeline – “Stages”
