MUSIC REVIEW: ‘Girl Next Door’ by Sauti Sol feat Tiwa Savage

This seems to be a consistently collaborative season for Sauti Sol – but then again, the months after Coke Studio always seem to produce some straight audio fire. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • It starts off with Mr Fancy Fingers himself, Polycarp, setting the mood with a little guitar riff, and then Chimano gets gives the intro into the song.
  • The jam is about a guy who has always looked at the girl next door, '...I've been loving eminado tangu enzi za maziwa ya Nyayo...' sings Bien, but the girl has never looked at him like that, until recently.
  • It's that kind of song that's a relaxed reggae tune playing in the background of a lazy, lovey-dovey kind of day, which I suppose is a contrast from what you would expect from a Sauti Sol Tiwa collaboration.

This seems to be a consistently collaborative season for Sauti Sol – but then again, the months after Coke Studio always seem to produce some straight audio fire.

Their collaboration album is coming up as well, hence all the collaborations, titled Afrikan Sauce, and it's sure to be...well, saucy.

We can only hope. The boys' latest hit single from this album features Tiwa Savage and is already promising to be an earworm for reasons I will list below. It currently boasts of over 400,000 views.

But before I get into the reasons I like this song – spoiler alert, I like this song – am I the only one who's super excited that Bien finally got to meet, work with become friends with, play the love interest for, his forever crush Tiwa? I don't know why that's getting me all choked up inside, probably because Tiwa is my fave too, but also because he really waited for that to happen, man! Plus she's a great performer, one of the good Nigerian ones who come and dance for longer than 20 minutes. I was super pumped when this was coming out because that's the first thing I thought.

If you haven't watched the video, you can watch it here.

It starts off with Mr Fancy Fingers himself, Polycarp, setting the mood with a little guitar riff, and then Chimano gets gives the intro into the song.

The jam is about a guy who has always looked at the girl next door, '...I've been loving eminado tangu enzi za maziwa ya Nyayo...' sings Bien, but the girl has never looked at him like that, until recently.

It's that kind of song that's a relaxed reggae tune playing in the background of a lazy, lovey-dovey kind of day, which I suppose is a contrast from what you would expect from a Sauti Sol Tiwa collaboration.

Even though it isn't a club banger, the message still gets across. Back to Tiwa – she takes over in her verse by singing in Swahili, which I've always been here for! Bien slides in for his bit, then Savara with the bridge approving of drug-related activities for the even feel of the song – in a fire jumpsuit.

SIMILAR TO ‘MELANIN’

It is similar to “Melanin” in that there is a repeated base track that stays constant all through the song.

The melody is the same, which I don't mind as much as I did in “Melanin”, because they do mix up the ad libs and the bridges well, and with, in my opinion, more variety.

Now to what I don't like about the song. I like the song itself but I'm not a big fan of the video.

It's too similar to all the other videos out there, in my opinion, particularly the club scene that looks like a more relaxed backyard party version of, again, Melanin, or Tiwa and Wizkid's recent collaboration “Ma Lo”. I'm not a fan.

I like most of the lyrics, even the far-reaching ones, but I'm going to just file that under poetic license and keep it moving. And I admit, though I like the easy feel of this song, I'm ready for a bass-infused killer tune from these guys, and Tiwa.