
Many people in the world have reasons to sing their own versions of the blues. Some groups have hundreds of years’ worth of reasons to do so. The female perspective has, sadly, rarely been the focus of artists through the ages. What’s worse, pop music has benefited from the talent of marvellous female performers, but not often; it has given them the agency to really speak their minds.
Maybe this is, indeed, an era of change. All that we all need is honesty and the ability to look each other in the eye. We don’t need fake songs of empowerment but voices that can carry the truth with them. We don’t need destructive rage but soulfulness.

This is what Lí-Lí Octave looks to deliver on the album “Play on Venus,” a soul meditation on the burden and beauty of being a human being in a world increasingly preoccupied with the mystique of the digital.
Worry not; every note sung by Lí-Lí trembles with soul. It’s the sound of a singer searching for perfection and letting hope, love and pain mould it. Can your AI voice replication software do that? Most singers can’t even do that.
Subtlety is a weapon used throughout the album, as is exemplified by the opening track, “Wait (For Your Love).” The singing is introduced first as a murmur reflecting on a never-ending delay for one’s affection. Pay attention to the drum fills here!
The live setting in which the songs were recorded suits the material. These are songs best lived out with an audience who can give back the same energy as the group. That’s as true for the sexy “Lay It Down,” the jazzy, bass-lead “You Scared,” or the confident pat on the back of “Work of Art.”
This is smoothly performed music. The ambience created by the audience helps increase the warmth of the recordings. But this is not merely music meant to lull you to sleep.
No, this is often combative music written from a perspective of righteous indignation. “Mind Your GD Business” is a tune about unrequired attention. “Get Off Me” talks about the constant pressure of being expected to please others. And “Struggling”, featuring some of Lí-Lí Octave’s breathiest, warmest singing, is an honest admission of the difficulty of facing up to your own expectations of yourself.
Where does this leave us? It leaves seeing a complete perspective of a great female singer backed by a highly competent band. And you needn’t worry. The blues comes and goes. That’s just natural. But as the last song on this album proclaims, that shouldn’t be enough to take you away from the “Top of the World.”
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