Back with his third full-length album, Joe Samba brings us Lifeline.
Released on September 27, Lifeline is a 10-track end of summer bop. An easy-listening album, that’s mostly light, upbeat ditties. Lifeline is a good album, and shows a lot of talent and dedication, though they do seem to follow similar patterns and melodies. Joe Samba, rather cleverly, throws some more alternative sounds in there just as the repetition begins to lose you. As a whole, I find Lifeline to be comparable to Kaiser Chiefs’ Easy Eighth Album.
It begins and end with very strong songs, starting with Culture War that has a nice build-up of instrumentation, and works as an introduction to Joe Samba’s sound. It finishes with the title track, which a positive, light-hearted rock track. It closes the album well, like the song at the end of a movie. A few songs have the comforting lyrics, I particularly enjoy Communicate for the lyrics.
For the music, my favourite songs were Lost Boy, Surfside (feature Jarv) and Meant to Be (featuring Wax). Lost Boy and Surfside are both pop punk tracks, with catchy melodies that resemble old school classics such as Blink 182, New Found Glory and Sum 41. Meant to Be continues with the summer aesthetic but stands out for the rapping within the verses.
So, if you’d like an easy, upbeat album to pass the time, Lifeline is out now.