3rd album from British-born, Paris-based Ala.Ni. Sunshine Music mixes the warm, relaxed vibe of the Caribbean into a heady blend of calypso, jazz and bossa nova – and delivers a few sharp messages, wrapped in sweet, sweet, coatings, along the way
Release Date: 19th September 2025
Label: Nø Førmat Records
Formats: CD, Vinyl, Digital
WE WERE RIGHT!
We had the benefit of a taster for Sunshine Music, the new album from displaced songwriter/vocalist Ala.Ni, when we were slipped a copy of the album’s lead single, Something You Said, back in May. We were knocked out by the single – and particularly by the song’s astounding vocal arrangements and we were driven to speculate whether the song’s parent album – now with us – would feature more of the same sunny, genre-blurring blend of calypso, jazz, bossa nova and golden-era songcraft. We suspected then that it would. And we were right.
Sunshine Music is Ala.Ni’s third album and follows the critically-acclaimed ACCA (2020) – an album that featured collaborations with Iggy Pop and LaKeith Stanfield. There are no superstar guest appearances on Sunshine Music. Ala.Ni doesn’t need them.
A JAMAICAN SOJOURN
The songs for the album were shaped during a 30-month period that Ala.Ni spent living in Barbados, Grenada and Jamaica – a sojourn that provided the British-born, Paris-based artist with a new sense of self. Ala.Ni explains: “Living in Jamaica was the first time I lived in a Black-majority country. Jamaicans are very unapologetically themselves. I’ve chosen to live in Paris and I feel more myself and more expressive here than I did in London, and more appreciated and valued as an artist, too. But there are microaggressions and microrascisms that we have to live with every single day as People of Colour. When I moved out of that environment, I was like ‘Shit – that’s what I’ve been dealing with all this time.’ I was just getting on and accepting certain negative behaviours as an act of mental survival.”
Jamaica, in particular was inspiring. Ala.Ni found that the music flowed naturally and embedded itself within her being such that, when she returned to the cold of a Paris winter, she was able to build her Jamaican memories into a set of songs that didn’t loose a single ounce of the sunshine that inspired them. These are wonderful songs, and that heady blend of styles that we anticipated back in May is everywhere. Co-producer – French jazz fusion artist, Clément Petit surely deserves some of the credit. As the album’s press release points out, Petit’s input brings “…a subtle wideness to the record’s textures without blurring Ala.Ni’s crystalline vision.” And the result – A warm, inviting album; an open-armed embrace of life’s bittersweetness, delivered with grace, humour and quiet defiance.
BOTTLED TROPICAL BLISS
The lyrics to opening track, Seaweed, recall Ala.Ni’s time in Jamaica and, particularly, a day spent swimming amongst seaweed. The song was written in collaboration with Ala.Ni’s friend, Miami artist Liset Alea, and it’s delightfully relaxing. Bass and percussion provide the main backing to some of the most vivid and intimate vocals that you’ll hear this side of Easter. Ala.Ni collects tropical bliss and bottles it for us all to savour. And that’s the case, too for the wonderful Summer Meadows, a song that belies its origins in a freezing Paris bedroom to bring the warmth of a Caribbean summer to the coldest European room. It’s as light and unpredictable in flight as a butterfly, with pattering stringed instruments, carnivalesque horns, light, jangly percussion and dreamy, skittering vocals.
Lead single, Something You Said, was written after Ala.Ni received a guitar sketch from longtime collaborator Marvin Dolly. Speaking of the song’s lyrics, Ala.Ni says: “I often take a snippet from my life and just amplify it,” and, here, she uses that very device to recount the headrush experienced during the early stages of mutual attraction. Ala.Ni channels Dionne Warwick in a vocal delivery that is divine, whilst chunky bass and light percussion complete the scene. It’s a song that, as I can now confirm, will grow with every repeat listen.
CONFRONTING THE LEGACY OF COLONIAL THEFT
There’s a lovely, innocent, 1930s feel to the delightful Hey Moon. The lyrics spill out in a cascade and Ala.Ni sings them beautifully, with a sincerity that is utterly convincing. Listeners will never look at the moon in the same way again, once they’ve heard Ala.Ni’s eulogy.
But Sunshine Music isn’t all sweetness and moonlight; several of the songs have a political point to make and, with Tief, Ala.Ni makes her point stridently. With lyrics like: “What you take – give it back, stolen riches – give it back. My name – you changed that. Your hate – keep that,” Ala.Ni confronts the legacy of colonial theft and makes a call for reparations. And that call is made, softly, sweetly and so very, very, powerfully, to a lush bossa nova rhythm that’s as smooth as double cream. And, of course, everything that Ala.Ni says here, really needs to be said. As she, herself, points out: “Whether it’s the Bennin Bronzes, the Elgin Marbles, the Kohinoor Diamond, there has to be a point where these precious goods are returned to their rightful owners… Those past crimes against humanity have to be compensated if we’re ever to be truly equal.”
A SNAPSHOT OF NATURE
Ala.Ni’s lyrics to Don’t Want To Hate You recall a rocky relationship she experienced during her stay in Jamaica. They reflect the pain suffered by each party but – and Ala.Ni has a knack of doing this – she sings them so sweetly, to a pristine calypso tune, that a casual listener would never guess that anything had ever been amiss. And Ala.Ni sticks with the subject of sticky relationships for Rain On My Heart, another song built upon a Marvin Dolly guitar framework, and another with lyrics that reflect upon a ‘passing ships’ moment during her Jamaican sojourn. Ala.Ni whispers her vocals to a sparse accompaniment of slowly picked acoustic guitar and the occasional tone of woodwind for what is, surely, the tenderest, most contemplative song on the album.
Folky, fingerpicked guitar provides the intro to Blue Mountain, before string bass injects a jazzy calypso feel. Ala.Ni’s lyrics are a fond recollection of a day spent hiking in Jamaica’s mountains or, as Ala.Ni more poetically puts it: “A snapshot of nature, transcendence and bittersweet return.” The lyrics are vivid and evocative and Ala.Ni sings them with an easy, fond, passion.
SPOTLIGHT ON A SPECIAL VOICE
Next, Ala.Ni tackles the difficulties often experienced in accepting love that’s given too easily, with This is Why – the first song that Ala.Ni wrote for the album. Lyrics like: “This is why, when you tell me that you love me, something that you’ve said – oh – one million times, I pretend that I don’t care, and that I didn’t hear. I even fight back a smile” put her message firmly across, and the light bossa nova rhythm places the spotlight firmly on the beauty of Ala.Ni’s voice.
And discrete accompaniment – this time from a lightly- manipulated keyboard – performs the same role for Best of Me, a song in which Ala.Ni pays tribute to Tony O’Saul, a former mentor who spotted the potential in Ala.Ni’s voice even before she did herself. He was, clearly, an astute observer.
AN ALBUM NOT TO BE MISSED
Finally, to close this excellent album, Ala.Ni once again weaves personal experience into a cautionary tale, this time warning of the perils of narcissism. The backing to closing track Ton Amour is poppy electronica with a reggae edge and the lyrics, once again, deliver a severe message, wrapped in a sweet candy coating. I get the feeling that anyone unwise enough to become the subject of Ala.Ni’s ire will cringe when they’re told their faults. But, with a voice like that, they’ll LOVE being told, nevertheless.
Sunshine Music is a truly excellent album. The blending of calypso, bossa nova, jazz and blues seems effortless, Ala.Ni’s songs are detailed, intriguing and – occasionally – they cut deeply and, above all, she has a voice to die for. Not to be missed.
Watch the official video to Summer Meadows – a track from the album – below:
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