31 Jul TOP TO TAIL: An Album That Defined My Childhood
written by: Anathi Mngxekeza
There is a reason every generation grows up and starts believing “music today just isn’t as good as it was back in the day”. It has to do with music nostalgia; the powerful way music calls you back to a treasured moment or a meaningful memory is unrivalled. This is the first of a few articles I have penned, detailing how these albums are perfection from beginning to end. Not only because of the composition or other elements of music, but because they define specific points and periods in my life. I have chosen five full projects by South African acts to analyse. Next up is The Soil’s self-titled debut album that has blessed ears everywhere since its release in 2012.
The Soil is an a capella group hailing from Soweto, according to their Wikipedia. Off the page, they defined the year I turned twelve. Thankfully, I no longer have the BlackBerry I had at the time. I’m sure it was brimming with pitchy recordings of myself butchering the heartwarming melodies and harmonies in this album.
The Soil (Deluxe Edition) is a cornerstone of Afro-Pop from the Intro (which I can perform word-for-word even if you woke me up in the middle of the night in 2075) to the remixed version of their hit single Inkomo.
It rolls from the introductory spoken word about The Soil and the deep meaning music holds to the band and their musical offering, straight into their smash hit, Joy. To this day, the song brings South Africa joy as it remains in our collective consciousness due to a hugely successful advert Cadbury only stopped running a few years ago.
Following their most popular song thus far, whose catchy hook serenades family and the joy they bring, is Baninzi. It opens with steady beatboxing on a song that tells a love story. Track 4 sounds like a Sunday, which is ironically exactly what they named this ballad. The Soil paints an image of African beauty standards all poured into the person who broke your heart on…. you guessed it, a Sunday.
Former female group member, Buhlebenadalo takes centre stage in the next song Inkomo. This is another storytelling ballad with lively beatboxing and adlibs. I can say this is 100% of my favourite songs on here.
The next few songs switch up the tone of the album that has up until this point been lighter, filled with the fun and flair of a weekend or holiday spent in an African community in a rural or urban area. Girl I Love (I’m Lonely), Impossible and They Fell are deeply personal, vulnerable tales of love lost. The Soil excellently layer emotion using their harmonies and artfully dissonant melodies.
Bhomba is another favourite of mine from this LP. It is reminiscent of IsiXhosa nursery rhymes of my childhood. The lyrics incorporate some characters from African/Nguni folk tales. Dyakalashe/Jakalashe, uSele and iNgulube all make an appearance in this special song about the slippery slope between indulgence and greed.
The depth of the next two songs on this album cannot be overstated. Tracks 10 and 11 are about the darkness of night and the lone star that shines the brightest, respectively. Lonely Night followed by Sedilaka speaks to the thoughtful track list and the intentional order. These songs brought tears to my eyes at 11 the same way they do now, at 25.
The album is rounded up by a bonus track, Baninzi mixed in a different, beatbox-heavy way, and the aforementioned Inkomo remix. Zakwe is the sole feature and the cherry on top of a phenomenal debut album. Considering the rapper is only featured on a bonus track on the deluxe album, the Soil inarguably delivered a solid debut as a quartet of Sowetans. BRB, going to listen to this project again. Let me know what you think! Unless you don’t agree that it’s perfect, then I don’t think I want to know. I’m only joking 😉
