Mayah Camara - Dreamlover

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Mayah Camara’s “Dreamlover” is a distillation of the collaboration between Matt Catlow and Mayah Camara which showcases the synergy between her first-rate vocal performances and songwriting and his high level of production ability. Each song drips with feeling and captures the immediacy and undeniable emotional impact of loving, losing and aching with desire. The way in which carefully chosen instruments interact with powerful expression and vocal beauty weaves together moments of engagement and thrill. The end result is music that lives and breathes as it evolves.

At the heart of “Dreamlover” lies Mayah Camara’s vocal ability. Every album she creates has her flexible, impactful and honest performance at the centre. There is a level of connection her voice creates which goes beyond merely enjoyable, drawing me into her world as she sings. Hearing her carry a soaring high note or add sensuality with her velvety voice is a great listening experience. The way in which the production foregrounds her performances only increases the impact of the music as it unfolds.

Another central appeal of “Dreamlover” is Mayah Camara’s songwriting. Her lyrics are clear and straightforward but touch the heart with earnestness and genuine feeling. Every track captures the emotion she seeks to put out, the songs speaking of passion or heartache with the same lack of affectation and heartfelt sensation. I find myself thrilling and hurting along with the stories being told and that makes me want to listen over and over again. I also want to shout out Nicolas Rixon’s lyrics on “Tell You True.”

The production by Matt Catlow is crucial to the way in which “Dreamlover” works. His sense of how to best emphasize Mayah Camara’s performances with a choice of different instruments allows her special talent to fully bloom. The way he combines guitar, saxophone and synth with strong percussive energy and basslines which are guiding and anchoring creates music that supports and gives richness to the songwriting and singing on the album.

Overall Album Impressions

“Blue” ripples with azure radiance while a broad percussive plane extends below in a flowing expanse as a panpipe breathes tenderly. Purely soulful, Mayah Camara’s voice voyages with a sax exuding a reedy depth that transmits blazing passion in its reedy voice as pan pipes weave like a zephyr.

Aching need is borne on Mayah Camara’s voice over a rhythmic punch. A sax solo further deepens the burning desire, combining jazzy verve and intricate motion. Mayah Camara shows great heart and broadcasts unadorned expression before the sax ends the song.

It can be difficult to “make connections or move in a new direction” and she hopes that the song's subject's not going to object to what she’s saying. She felt that they had a special connection and would “take it to another level” but he gave her feelings with which she wrestled.

Our narrator wants to know if she’s dreaming or leaning into the truth. She wants to understand if there’s “some way of knowing.” She asks if he’ll show her or clue her in. She’s worried he’ll leave her “feeling blue.” She had believed that they’d gotten the green light and they were going to be alright.

Their love feels unrequited to the storyteller who muses “Am I being short-sighted? I thought there was a spark.” She had felt their love was kindled and there was “a real connection for us.” Now she wants to know “why you acting all shady” and adds that he is making her crazy.

As the song ends, she feels that “everything between us is looking kinda hazy” and she needs to know what is going on.

Vibrant warmth rises from radiant notes as a groove shifts to bring “Radio Call” to life with funky undertones. Percussive tones with hollow reverberation join vocals which create sonic grace, Mayah Camara making her love and attraction plain. Rhythmic energy flows with active percussion and a guitar cruises with chilled-out ease, Mayah Camara demonstrating her mastery of emotive expression.

Slap bass wriggles with classic ’80s percussion while the vocals exhale like an August breeze, capturing all of the deep need she feels for the song’s subject. A guitar with a vibrant tone floats while the jumping foundation permeates the song with uplifting sensations. Mayah Camara unfurls a story of ardent affection with her ultra-smooth performance, highlighted by floating guitar tones and slipping piano before the music ends.

Promising to call the radio and request a dedication for the song’s subject, the storyteller says, “See I don’t have the right words so I think I’ll say it with the tune.” She really likes the other person’s character and there’s something special about him that “sets my heart ablaze.” She adds that she hopes he’ll get her message as the song “rides over the waves.”

“I just want to sway to the song, feel you holding me all night long,” and as they float away, the music starts to express “what I’m feeling in my heart.” She points out that the other person makes her luminous like the sun and she feels he could be “the one that I was made to love.”

“When I see you in my dreams, I wake up feeling butterflies,” and every moment they share is a paradise. She goes on to say, “You’ve been running through my mind most of the day and all of the night and I think you’ll find if we were together we would dance into the night.”

“Stay” hovers before bursting with gripping emotion, sliding guitar intermingling with rhythmic motion to express all of the affectionate need for caring, as vocals combine tenderness and the fear of lost love. Washing currents of warming sound are shaped by percussive motion and Mayah Camara makes her voice a plea for loving companionship.

The second singer interleaves his voice with Mayah Camara’s, bringing his own earnest expression as the guitar paints in a palette of intense gentleness and silky notes swirl in a current of touching feeling. Both singers reach into their hearts, imbuing me with their passionate engagement, while synth tones create a luminous halo. The song ends as the two singers capture attraction and the guitar showers the music with fierce need.

Knowing that they’re both in pain because they don’t want to let their relationship go, the first storyteller says that “it’s disconcerting, you’ve been cold as ice and snow.” She isn’t sure where the two of them stand and her head hurts because she can feel him pulling away from her. She realizes that if he left her, “all the colour in my life would fade to gray,” and she wants to keep him as her man.

“Won’t you stay baby, stay with me tonight,” is the first narrator’s plea because she doesn’t want to let go of him. She says, “I want to let you know, I need you to stay baby, stay with me tonight.” The second narrator understands that the first narrator wants “a perfect love,” but he doesn’t want to try. He points out that when they used to fight, “we’d make love at night until everything was right.”

In unison, they realize that they have to keep things together because they promised it would be forever and neither of them wants to leave the other. Reminiscing about when they first fell in love, they “said it was always going to be enough and even now when things are going rough I need you to stay.”

As an effervescent atmosphere sparkles around a locked-in groove, all-consuming desire flows from Mayah Camara as “Dreamlover” shimmies to life. As the background glitters with diamond light, Mayah Camara seizes all of the dynamic passion within the lyrics, capturing my soul with her heat and need. Contrasting gentleness from the diadems that glimmer and the underlying rhythmic pulsation’s power support the incandescent emotion which fills every pore of the music.

As the guitar and chimes tumble with disco-ball light, Mayah Camara transmits sensuality, deep commitment and romance in her strong vocals. Layered production creates excitement and bursting motion as astral notes sweep down and funky guitar flashes. Constant joy and anticipation fill the vocals while the underpinnings throb steadily, as clear luminosity shines out and silence falls.

Expressing her overpowering desire, the narrator says, “You make me wanna change my name, dream lover.” He embodies everything she wants as he is able to set her on fire and “you’re the one I wanna claim.” She adds that “it takes a special kind of guy to make me notice, to take my focus” and get her lost in love. She continues, saying, “It takes a special kind of man to make me motion, to lead with emotion, to want a promotion to your love.”

Telling the song’s subject that if he wants to feel the kind of love expressed in love songs, our storyteller says, “I got what you need baby, if you wanna feel a real strong kind of love, you need to be with me.” Pointing out that when she’s alone with him, “it feels so special, on another level,” she wants to cuddle up to him. He’s making her feel a rush of emotion and “got me dancing on the ceiling and now I’m appealing to your mind.”

“What’s a girl to do? I wanna get with you,” asks the narrator as she thinks she’s falling for the song’s subject. She wonders if he would let her know if he’d be her beau. Harboring fantasies of them together, she says, “You are the only one that I can find myself dreaming of, thinking of.” He’s in her head day and night and she can’t imagine wanting anyone else. She concludes, “I really want you baby, you are my dream lover.”

Notes slip with patterned grace above charging rhythmic pulses as “Never Lie To You” swirls to life. Chimes flicker with cut-glass brilliance and Mayah Camara captures tremendous yearning with incandescent feeling before both singers harmonize richly in the chorus above the solid rhythmic pulse.

Sensually unfolding, JJ Mist’s voice melts as Mayah Camara adds her own emotive sound. Crystalline coruscation explodes as the two singers create a fiery feeling. The music catches positivity, driving it home to me before the song closes.

The song’s subject tells the narrator that, in his deepest fantasy, he pictured her and “found a way to make it reality.” Every man has a strategy and “you found a way to knock me off my feet ‘cause your words were so sweet.” He asks her to look into his eyes and realize that he will never lie to her.

“You can see the signs if you really try,” he insists, promising “I’ll fight for you, babe,” as he speaks of making his way in the world and searching for a “special girl.” She responds that he wants to change his circumstances, to feel as though they’re in a dance, adding, “I’m gonna have to give you a chance, I want a life of romance.”

The narrator tells the song’s subject that he has to know she won’t let go, because he’s the only one for her. She continues, “everyone can see you were made for me ‘cause you’re my baby,” before concluding, “no, I’ve never felt this way about anyone else! Give me a chance, I’ll be the perfect girl.”

“Into The Sunset” spins out with a bassline full of shadow, a guitar which captures growing tension and the need to escape and percussion pattering and then accelerating. A saxophone weaves through the music like city lights on smooth paintwork, the car pointed at the horizon while Mayah Camara digs in to generate urgency and the pursuit of new opportunities and an old passion.

An intoxicating mix of love, loss and aspiration spills from the vocal melody as Mayah Camara makes me feel every ounce of emotion. A minor-key sensation is cast over the saxophone despite the heated love within its reverberant voice. All of the fierce need and sense of possibility are driven deep into me, Mayah Camara’s performance only deepening the feelings.

Images of a desert road unfold while active retro percussion bounces and the track glows with warm sunlight. As the song draws to an end, the guitar unfolds in a speeding eruption of positivity before the track comes to a close.

Our storyteller wants to go out rather than staring at the walls inside, “acting like I got something I need to hide.” She feels unfulfilled alone and wants to “shake things up and change it up” so she can move with the tide. She adds, “I gotta be on my way, to the one that got away,” because she knows the relationship’s not done, so she’s heading to California.

Feeling compelled to “hit the road so I can reach you now,” she turns on the radio, rolls down the windows to feel wind blowing through her hair “as I do what I dare, driving into the sunset.” She isn’t sure what will happen, but she realizes that “if I don’t try to put things right, I’ll be drowning in regret” because love doesn’t simply disappear. She continues, “Gotta shake things up and wake it up, rebuild and re-erect it.”

“Racing against the clock, I’m not gonna stop till he’s mine again,” and she doesn’t want to cry anymore, so she’ll keep on going until she’s with the song’s subject. She concludes, “I’m on my way to the one that went away, to California.”

Flying with youthful energy, “Pinball” carries a message of defiance in the face of some seriously questionable behavior. Hollow light dances from a breathy synth and Mayah Camara trips out the words with explosive energy. A feeling of rebellion and resistance against the mistreatment the main character faced fills the melodic pattern that skips with a light touch. Spinning like a disco ball, the lightly brushing melodic line skims while Mayah Camara emotes with sincere expression.

The saxophone lends its unmistakable jazzy vivacity to interlock with the vocals, grabbing me with their feelings of empowerment while computerized tones leap together and the guitar pours out thrilling brilliance. Mayah Camara mixes feelings of positive encouragement with warning before the music ends.

“I know you fell in love, but how he treated you ain’t good enough,” as the narrator tells the song’s subject she knows they’ve been crying because of his lies. “He went around town, playing around,” so she urges the other person to tell him it’s over. She adds, “You need to listen to the feeling, girl you know that something just ain’t right.” She points out that the other person needs to heal and put him behind her.

“He made your heart break, left you standing in the rain,” as our storyteller reminds the song’s subject that he shook her world and caused her pain. “You took a chance on this romance, he’s out here playing pinball with your heart,” and the other person has had enough because “it’s not the way you wanna love, you wanna be number one, the only one.” She goes on to say, “You’re gonna let him go and it’s said and done, you’re moving on.”

“You gave him so many chances and now he’s taking advantage of your time,” which the narrator says is doing damage, pointing out to the other person that they don’t need the baggage from it. “You need to know where you’re going, girl I think you’re better off alone,” and all of the signs are pointing to the fact that the song’s subject needs to return home. “He really did you wrong, stringing you along,” and now the other person has to be strong because “you don’t belong.”

“Up and down, off and on,” our storyteller says that it’s gone on long enough and everything he’s doing to the song’s subject is wrong. She concludes, “What he’s doing is wack, go and get your power back and let it fade to black.”

“Tell You True” crosses eras with elements of ’80s soft rock and Motown, capturing uncertainty and love in one pastel-hued emotional burst. Guitar carries the caressing melody in a ballad of questioning and remaining passion, Mayah Camara seeking reassurance. As the guitar radiates scintillating light, the smooth underlayer pulses to support the strength of the song’s message.

The vocals capture all of the anticipation and worry within the lyrics, leaping with undeniable affection and a tinge of nervousness. A feeling of soul-deep connection, leavened by a lack of confidence, reflects in the melodic line that unfolds as Mayah Camara carries me into the feelings of affection and potential before the song comes to a close.

Filled with uncertainty, our storyteller wonders, “If I tell you true, will you love me and what’s left behind of you and me?” Her heart has strings attached and she can’t let the song’s subject see “the truth in me hidden behind my kiss.” She goes on to say:

“In the land where currency of truth lies fluctuating like soap bubbles gonna burst,” the champagne glass tumbles to the floor and “shatters you by showing you the things the other girls won’t show you.”

“So many times I put my fears aside and open my heart” when the narrator felt safe enough to show “where I am ugly.” To conclude the song, she says, “When the pretty melts away, I’m left crying you the tears that other girls won’t cry you.”

Conclusion

“Dreamlover” takes listeners to the heart of emotion and passion with a heady mixture of Mayah Camara’s vocal abilities and Matt Catlow’s production skills. The end result is music that bursts with life and undeniable heart as each song reveals itself.