Mayah Camara - Wanting You Now

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Mayah Camara’s “Wanting You Now” is a soul-infused journey through ardent desire, emotional depth and feelings of compassion and love. Mayah Camara uses her beautiful voice to superb effect, delivering performances that are deeply felt and engaging. The production adds richness and emotional strength to each song, outlining them with skillful synth choices and first-rate sound design. The lyrics are full of truth and undisguised sensation, lending the music a sense of connection to the complexities of love and life.

Mayah Camara’s grippingly expressive, smoky voice is the heart and soul of “Wanting You Now.” Her performances deliver jolts of pure emotion, translating her lyrics into sensation without any filter. The result is music that strikes with lightning-bright intensity, driving home the emotive, atmospheric words in each song. The vocals galvanize me as they unfold.

Lyrically, Mayah Camara writes across the varied landscapes of love, passion and human pain. Her words are full of vivid imagery that captures emotional nuance and ferocity. Each track explores a different facet of the journey lovers and people take through life, allowing me to experience or recall my own emotions with unmistakable clarity.

SelloRekt/LA Dreams also leaves an indelible mark on “Wanting You Now.” His musical backdrops are luscious, melodically engaging and full of sonic imagery that supports the vocals and lyrics. The way he matches the sensations of Mayah Camara’s performances allows each song to stand out and shine.

My Favourite Songs Analyzed

“Love Take Over” opens with a groovy rhythm and brightly pulsating synth. A sweeping sound adds a shadowy touch while strings shine and the guitar growls. The rhythm is dynamic as the luminous strings wriggle with passionate light and Mayah Camara’s chocolate-smooth voice captures the burning fire within the words, full of yearning excitement.

The underlying heartbeat is strong while Mayah Camara’s voice flies with inspiring dynamism, filling my heart with the ferocious love inside the lyrics. As the jamming underlayer presses forward, the drum beat snaps and the vocals rise with heated intensity. The fiery strength within the performance is echoed by the funky pulse underneath. As Mayah Camara’s voice echoes with undeniable desire, she captures the dangerous attraction waiting for her. The explosive rhythm drives forward while the heated vocals come to an end.

“You’ve really gotten under my skin, I got this feeling within,” our storyteller says, knowing there’s so much left to discover with the other person. She adds, “For me there is nobody else, I’m coming off of the shelf,” because the song’s subject is the only one for her. “You make me wanna give you my all,” she admits, because the other person knocked her off her feet and made her fall. She points out, “You make me wanna give you my heart when Cupid hit me with that fire loving dart.”

The narrator realizes that “when love takes over, there ain’t no point in trying to fight.” She knows that “when love takes over, it could be so wrong but just feels so right.” She says the song’s subject makes her temperature rise when she looks into their eyes. “Something’s kinda taking me over, I want you so bad I could cry,” she adds, feeling compromised because the other person has come a little bit closer.

“This crazy reaction, this fatal attraction is gonna make me throw all caution to the wind,” she confesses, because she’s losing herself—but she isn’t looking for any help. Instead, she says, “I’m gonna go and give my heart to him.”

The sensual voiceover comes in as “Wanting You Now” begins with heavily erupting drums. Lambent synth rises with sparkling luminosity as Mayah Camara's smoky, soulful voice carries the desire-filled melody. SelloRekt/LA Dreams’ synth bubbles like champagne as Mayah Camara's sexy voice expresses the deep craving within the lyrics.

The way in which she injects intense attraction and fierce desire engages me in the music. The low end has an insistent throb which speaks to the song’s urgent undercurrent. The crystalline synth climbs to the sky and Mayah Camara pours heat into the words.

The low end continues to muscle forward as the gritty expression of the vocalist permeates the music. The guitar slices with free-wheeling ardency as Mayah Camara belts out the melody as nobody else can. The huge drumbeat is insistent as the impassioned chorus explodes and flies.

Heat and craving mingle in Mayah Camara's distinctive voice while the low end continues to pump. The track drives toward an end with galactic light suffusing the track from the synth while the drum heartbeat takes the song to an end.

Our narrator says that nothing can compare to the time when they’re alone together with low lights and soft music. She says, “I can’t focus right now, I need you to hurry home, okay?” because she needs the song’s subject now. She left him a message, asking him not to take too long when he's coming home, because she needs him.

She’s been waiting far too long and the storyteller says, “I don’t feel so strong ‘cause I need you now.” She wants to feel the song subject’s tender touch and experience his love, because she’s all alone. She adds, “Baby, I’m ready for you to do what you do.” She points out that their chemistry is undeniable and when he touches her, “I ignite with desire.”

Our narrator says, “Every woman needs the love of her man,” and she wants to be tied up, tied down and thrown around because it’s been “nothing but passion since the day we began.” Now she says there are “hot beads of sweat dripping down my neck,” and as their eyes meet, the heat rises and she knows what’s about to happen.

“Dream Away” starts as a swelling sound grows with laser-like notes. The strings create dramatic grace as the guitar intertwines and Mayah Camara's voice takes on a feathery quality, still full of soul and heart, while the piano trickles with breathy tenderness. Mayah Camara's emotively powerful vocals reach out, filling me with the pain of the words as the drums add a steady rhythm.

The piano glistens with lustrous emotionality and the vocals fill with mournful want as the underlayer adds shape. Mayah Camara uses her broad-ranging voice to deliver all of the broken loss within the lyrics and the strings cry with as much pain as the singer. The piano entangles with fragility while the vocals soar with impressive strength and the underpinnings drive on. The piano and strings give the music orchestral heart while Mayah Camara shows off her abilities, capturing the song’s bereft feeling. One more crescendo bursts like a sunrise before the song ends on delicately dancing piano.

As the storyteller awakens, sometimes she thinks she can see the song subject’s face. She says, “When the wind whispers, I hear your name,” and the other person seems to take up every space. She misses them like “a baby needs a lullaby, like the stars never see the sun in the sky,” and the way a question needs a reply. She says, “I’m just so lost without you, nothing more I can do but dream away.”

When our narrator hears the other person's song on the radio, “every word she’s singing is like a knife into my soul.” People say pain lessens with time and she’ll make it, but she doesn’t know how. She can’t keep dreaming just to be with the song’s subject because “I need to live a life with meaning like I used to.” She realizes the other person wouldn’t want her drowning in this ache, but “I’m just so lonely, I miss you baby, I just wanna break down and cry.”

In conclusion, she needs the song’s subject in her life because “without you the loneliness is magnified, I can’t find a single thing to pacify the way that I feel.”

“On the Streets” opens as massively throbbing bass moves with rough-edged notes. The galloping low-end pulse joins Mayah Camara’s bittersweet performance, capturing all of the darkness and complexity of the streets. The gigantic rhythm surges with synthwave force as her vocals ring out with sincerity and honesty. Chimes sparkle with haunted light as Mayah Camara engages me with trembling clarity.

The colossal underlayer sharpens as the bells shimmer and Mayah Camara cries out with burning emotion. As the two singers intertwine, the vocals soar with undeniable feeling. The undulating, lacerating bass supports the lyrics as they push their message home. Mayah Camara carries the arcing, shadowy melody with conviction as pounding drums meet coruscating chimes before the song closes.

The narrator warns, “You gotta keep yourself alert ‘cause if you don’t you may get hurt out here.” There are many lessons to learn because “you gotta know the way it works out here.” She adds, “They say the freaks come out at night, so many things, so many sights,” and there is so much to absorb.

She reminds us that “if the streets come knocking, keep on walking, it’s survival out here.” There are too many people talking and “things are shocking, everyone’s a rival out here on the streets.” The roads are stained by oceans of tears “from days gone by,” and it’s tragic that “this is where so many grow.”

On the streets, it’s “a world within a world” full of “so many boys, so many girls, so many shots in the dark.” She says you must look and listen because it’s another world out there, you have to listen to your heartbeat and open your eyes, because “it’s not a place you wanna be.”

Flourishing drums rebound as trickling sounds mix with bright horns to start “Let’s Escape.” Mayah Camara’s voice is full of pent-up need as a throbbing underlayer propels the music. Her clear voice carries the melody with barely contained desire as the rhythm pulses. Loving sensations fill me as Mayah Camara transports me.

Glistening notes flash as the darkly pulsating foundation moves forward and the vocals arc above with unambiguous emotion. Sharp drums propel the flying chorus through the music with affection and longing.

Metallic tones sparkle like stray sunbeams while the underpinnings continue to undulate. As Mayah Camara embodies desiring emotion, explosive energy permeates the track. Rebounding synths dance lightly before the song ends.

“We’re never alone, there’s always somebody home,” but the narrator needs the other person to know she craves time with them. A “burning desire, down to the wire” pushes them to escape tonight. She searches for a place where no one knows them, insisting, “I just wanna take action.” She asks, “Is there somewhere we can be?” longing for a private, serene escape where desire can unfold without interruption.

“Stand My Ground” comes to life as the kick drum pounds and quickly intertwining synth illuminates the music. Mayah Camara’s voice is light but expressive, skipping through the music as the melody spills over with encouragement and a sense of freedom. The synth frolics and the drums give increased dynamic life to the music while the vocals are belted out with fierce strength.

Interesting percussive elements move with the aquamarine tones of the synth as Mayah Camara captures the mixture of reminiscence and forward-looking emotion in the words. I enjoy the flying vocals as they reach out with liberated joy, seeking a new path. The undulating underpinnings throb as the defiant pride within the vocals shines through. The background notes are effervescent and add a sense of release while Mayah Camara uses her superb vocal ability to propel the song with soaring happiness. The music creates a supportive backdrop for the mixture of independence and hopeful future vision.

As a new day dawns, our storyteller says, “I got some things on my mind, I got some things to say,” because she’s kept them to herself for too long and “I let you get your way, I wasn’t true to myself, I was hiding away.” She’s putting aside what they did before because it isn’t working “and we keep on hurting and we need more.”

“I don’t know the girl in the mirror, she’s not the one I used to be,” but she looks the narrator in the eye as she tries to get back to who she was. “I loved who I was before and that’s who I’m fighting for, I won’t let you drag me down, I’m gonna stand my ground.” She was bound too tightly and “trapped within the ropes” so she couldn’t see the light because she’d lost all hope.

Our storyteller was trapped in the dark because “I lost my spark,” but adds that it was her mistake and a choice she made to give so much to the song’s subject. She goes on to say, “But there’s a change to make, there’s a chain to break,” and she truly has work to do. Now she isn’t “papering over the cracks” or under attack, so “I’m gonna live my life, you’re not pushing me to the back.” It’s her time now.

“I don’t always wanna have to be strong as a woman, sometimes I wanna scream and shout and let it all out,” she explains in a way that comes naturally to her. Now she’s taking hold of the reins and she’s going to “break all of the chains that held me down.” She won’t stand in the rain or “live in the pain,” because “it’s over now, I’m gonna stand my ground.”

Gargantuan bass moves beneath trickling notes that rapidly cascade to kick off “Deja Vu.” Chimes scintillate as Mayah Camara’s ghostly vocals slide past with knowing darkness. The chimes continue to shine with galactic light, but Mayah Camara captures all of the anger and revelation within the lyrics. The low end oscillates with towering strength as the vocals cry out with bitter feeling, confused and full of pain. The surrounding music has a shadowy slide that fits the sensations within the words,and tremulous notes flicker with half-concealed brightness.

The way in which Mayah Camara communicates the mood of the song takes hold of me and carries me along. The melody’s minor-key shadings capture anger at the behavior of the song’s subject. The continually surging, supporting pulse moves with Mayah Camara’s vocal performance, which rises in defiance before the music closes.

“I recognize a feeling but I don’t think that I like it” reveals the narrator’s discomfort, even as she resists describing it. “I’ve seen this place, this scene somewhere in my dreams” hints at fear, and she adds that she wasn’t prepared to face “what’s in front of me.” She doesn’t want to talk about it or get caught up.

Our storyteller says, “It’s déjà vu, have we been here before?” and she doesn’t know what to do. She’s unsure. “I know your secret but I don’t wanna keep it to myself” shows she knows the other person was sneaking around. She adds, “See, you may play your wife, you may cheat and lie” and take risks but she reminds the song’s subject, “You need to recognize there ain’t no compromise, you know I saw that kiss.”

Conclusion

“Wanting You Now” carries impactful emotional depth. Its combination of exquisite vocals, thoughtful lyrics and skillful production makes for an album that grips me and will not let go.