Album: Is Your Love Big Enough? by Lianne La Havas (2012)
Genre: Soul | Mood: Good Natured
Record Label: Warner Bros. Records
Format: Album

Description: After her breakthrough performance on Later... with Jools Holland in October 2011, the career of London-born folk/soul crooner Lianne La Havas has bounced from one adventure to the next.
Two well-received EPs, a BBC Sound of 2012 nomination and a high-profile support slot on Bon Iver's North American tour, all before her debut album has come out. Now it’s arrived in the shape of Is Your Love Big Enough?, a strong and skilfully delivered set that consolidates the strengths of her spindly guitar and rich vocals, but also exposes weaknesses along the way.
It’s always been clear that La Havas has a special voice, and so it proves here. Her vocals are soulful, edged with lounge-bar smoke, but each note is sung with force and precision. On pensive Willy Mason duet No Room for Doubt, her resigned words barely escape her lips. Elsewhere, her layered vocals on They Could Be Wrong shimmer like Jill Scott’s, or Erykah Badu’s in her softer moments.
It’s a voice that invites you in, and only the hardest heart will resist the offer. La Havas’ guitar work, meanwhile, is often superb. Her fingers pluck clean lines that shift from playfully atonal on the title track, through the très chic Parisian vibes of Au Cinema, to the palm-muted tension of angry break-up anthem Forget.
While the album demonstrates La Havas’ skill in crafting hand-weaved interplay between voice and guitar, it also shows that she’s less of a natural fit for big, emotional ballads. Piano-led confessionals like Lost and Found or Gone aren’t bad songs, but they lead her into the arena of pop titans. They’re not powerful enough to beat someone like Adele at her own game, and it feels like she sacrifices a lot of her distinctive intimacy in reaching for these giant moments.
Despite these weaker moments of Is Your Love Big Enough?, it’s La Havas’ gorgeous voice and gifted string fingers that’ll make the biggest impressions. This might not be a home run straight out of the gate, but it’s an extremely promising first swing of the bat.

Artist Background: Lianne La Havas (born 23 August 1989) is an English folk and soul singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. On 5 December 2011, the BBC announced that she had been nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll. Part of the London, UK music scene. Associated with Soul movement. Known for Folk style.

Music Scene: Part of the London, UK music scene. Associated with Soul movement. Known for Folk style.

Tags: Soul, Good Natured, 2010s, Album, Warner Bros. Records

Additional Context: Based on 3 votes


After her breakthrough performance on Later... with Jools Holland in October 2011, the career of London-born folk/soul crooner Lianne La Havas has bounced from one adventure to the next.
Two well-received EPs, a BBC Sound of 2012 nomination and a high-profile support slot on Bon Iver's North American tour, all before her debut album has come out. Now it’s arrived in the shape of Is Your Love Big Enough?, a strong and skilfully delivered set that consolidates the strengths of her spindly guitar and rich vocals, but also exposes weaknesses along the way.
It’s always been clear that La Havas has a special voice, and so it proves here. Her vocals are soulful, edged with lounge-bar smoke, but each note is sung with force and precision. On pensive Willy Mason duet No Room for Doubt, her resigned words barely escape her lips. Elsewhere, her layered vocals on They Could Be Wrong shimmer like Jill Scott’s, or Erykah Badu’s in her softer moments.
It’s a voice that invites you in, and only the hardest heart will resist the offer. La Havas’ guitar work, meanwhile, is often superb. Her fingers pluck clean lines that shift from playfully atonal on the title track, through the très chic Parisian vibes of Au Cinema, to the palm-muted tension of angry break-up anthem Forget.
While the album demonstrates La Havas’ skill in crafting hand-weaved interplay between voice and guitar, it also shows that she’s less of a natural fit for big, emotional ballads. Piano-led confessionals like Lost and Found or Gone aren’t bad songs, but they lead her into the arena of pop titans. They’re not powerful enough to beat someone like Adele at her own game, and it feels like she sacrifices a lot of her distinctive intimacy in reaching for these giant moments.
Despite these weaker moments of Is Your Love Big Enough?, it’s La Havas’ gorgeous voice and gifted string fingers that’ll make the biggest impressions. This might not be a home run straight out of the gate, but it’s an extremely promising first swing of the bat.

Album: Blood by Lianne La Havas (2015)
Genre: Soul | Mood: Good Natured
Record Label: Warner Bros. Records
Format: Album

Description: "Blood"  is the second studio album by British recording artist Lianne La Havas, it was released through Warner Bros. Records on July 31, 2015.        
Following the release of her critically acclaimed debut Is Your Love Big Enough? La Havas embarked on a variety of tours and festivals before travelling to Jamaica. During La Havas time in Jamaica she attempted to regain a connection with her roots, the exploration inspired La Havas to begin writing the follow up to her debut. During her stay in Jamaica Lianne met with reggae producer Stephen McGregor who would subsequently go on to help produce the album.     
As well as working with McGregor, La Havas reunited with past collaborator Matt Hales, La Havas co-wrote each of the album's songs and was credited as a co-producer on one. Havas cited the album as a homage towards her Jamaican and Greek bloodline which in turn inspired the album's title. "Blood" was seen as departure from the acoustic musical leanings of her debut "Is Your Love Big Enough?", taking on a neo soul and Jazz style, with elements of R&B, doo-wop, reggae and gospel music.

Artist Background: Lianne La Havas (born 23 August 1989) is an English folk and soul singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. On 5 December 2011, the BBC announced that she had been nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll. Part of the London, UK music scene. Associated with Soul movement. Known for Folk style.

Music Scene: Part of the London, UK music scene. Associated with Soul movement. Known for Folk style.

Tags: Soul, Good Natured, 2010s, Album, Warner Bros. Records

Additional Context: Based on 3 votes


"Blood"  is the second studio album by British recording artist Lianne La Havas, it was released through Warner Bros. Records on July 31, 2015.        
Following the release of her critically acclaimed debut Is Your Love Big Enough? La Havas embarked on a variety of tours and festivals before travelling to Jamaica. During La Havas time in Jamaica she attempted to regain a connection with her roots, the exploration inspired La Havas to begin writing the follow up to her debut. During her stay in Jamaica Lianne met with reggae producer Stephen McGregor who would subsequently go on to help produce the album.     
As well as working with McGregor, La Havas reunited with past collaborator Matt Hales, La Havas co-wrote each of the album's songs and was credited as a co-producer on one. Havas cited the album as a homage towards her Jamaican and Greek bloodline which in turn inspired the album's title. "Blood" was seen as departure from the acoustic musical leanings of her debut "Is Your Love Big Enough?", taking on a neo soul and Jazz style, with elements of R&B, doo-wop, reggae and gospel music.

Album: Lianne La Havas by Lianne La Havas (2020)
Record Label: Warner Bros. Records
Format: Album

Artist Background: Lianne La Havas (born 23 August 1989) is an English folk and soul singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. On 5 December 2011, the BBC announced that she had been nominated for the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll. Part of the London, UK music scene. Associated with Soul movement. Known for Folk style.

Music Scene: Part of the London, UK music scene. Associated with Soul movement. Known for Folk style.

Tags: 2020s, Album, Warner Bros. Records


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