Album Review: Mon Rovîa, ‘Bloodline’
Swirling melodies, hypnotic rhythms, and joyous harmonies create a mesmerizing soundscape on Mon Rovîa’s cinematic debut album Bloodline. The Liberian-born singer, raised in the US, chronicles his own journey from war-torn Liberia to his coming-of-age in various communities abroad and in the US. In the 16 songs on the album, he peers into the unrest and search for belonging that lies deep in every individual’s and every society’s heart.
The album opens with the shimmering tones of “Black Cauldron,” as towering choruses swell over layers of piano, guitar, and synths, and repeated piano notes provide the call and response to the repetition of the lines in the refrain, which ends with an ominous line: “Some things, they take you right back/ Some things, they can take you right back/Some things, they take you right back/Some things, they take you.” Snatches of a radio transmission about Liberia’s capital, Monrovia, fall introduce “Pray the Devil back to Hell,” with circling guitar picking underlying angelic voices that convey the angelic figures who carry love even in the midst of darkness. The twinkling instrumentation of “Day at the soccer fields” evokes the joy and innocence of children playing football, even in the midst of war, even as the song calls forth his memory of a happier time. The introductory sections of the title track bear a sonic resemblance to Cat Steven’s “Don’t Be Shy,” and the song opens into a reflection on the nature of personal identity; no matter how far from home one travels, they can’t shed their legacy: “Ten thousand roads/I’ve walked on my own /Further I go /I’m closer to my ghost /Came a long way/Can’t fight my bloodline.” Gentle guitar picking frames the spacious and poignant “Little by Little,” an ode to perseverance and resilience. Hand clapping drive the rhythmic “Field Song,” a jubilant combination of field shouts and old time fiddling music that belies the song’s somber message of absence. The joyous shouts and harmonies of “Heavy Foot” act as declarations of protest, and the song could well be an anthem for our own times: “Love me now/Hold me down/And the government /Staying on heavy foot/And they tried to keep us all down.”
In the intimate, emotionally resonant songs on Bloodline, Mon Rovîa carries us warmly into his world, inviting us to travel with him through his own experiences of loss, longing, hope, and joy.
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Bloodline is available HERE.
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