Love or a Lesson by Mary Ann Alexander is unproblematic summer loving
The Blog #25: Love is in the air, and lessons are learnt.
The Blog features short write-ups on short EPs. My thoughts and track-by-track notes are listed below. Written before the Machine changed the world. Listen to the EP. Discuss. Enjoy.
Place @original listen: in public transport, sun on my face.
Thoughts:
If one has to guess whether Mary Ann Alexander was choosing between a Love and a Lesson, they would come away from this EP firmly leaning toward the former. There are tracks on love, and tracks on lessons, from loving, and losing yourself in a relationship. But Mary Ann makes sure that these lessons are also tinged with love, and so the harsh blow of viscerality never arrives. Mary Ann has been firmly facing outward, toward the global, with her music. The Bangalore-based Malayali artist has been traveling across the world and this recently yielded NY, a track on her experiences in the city which blew up online and even got her a shout out from SZA. In her quest to be universally appealing then, Mary Ann laces her music with a saccharine sweetness, preaching happy love and relationships that are only ever positive. It is a 16-minute EP but six songs long, so the tracks are tight and go straight to the heart from the get go. Mary Ann never overstays her welcome, and with the help of earworm guitar riffs and trap drums, gives us the EP version of an Adam Sandler romcom. Given the trajectory our world is trending toward, this dose of no-stakes positivity brings welcome sunlight on a dull grey day.
Notes:
Better Than This: pleasant guitar plucking. Mary Ann sounds joyful and in love. Very commercial RnB, will fit right in a Spotify RnB playlist.
Never Alone: love the blues-y guitar riff. Track has a bounce to it that resembles Boo’d up by Ella Mai. Tender track with tight writing. Ends as fast as it begins.
Too Much?: came across the track, and the album, through this music video. Not a big fan of how she keeps calling herself a wee lil baby. Also, the track is about heartbreak and a relationship falling apart at the end of which Mary Ann finds closure. The nusic video and production don’t seem to match this arc. Could be because she made this after the fact, and so this signifies her transition to being independent and herself?
Student of Love: trap-leaning pop. Switch up in the vocals with Mary Ann using a more whisper-y delivery. So much of RnB centres around love and heartbreak, man.
Love or a Lesson: I feel like this should have been placed right after or before Too Much, since they are more in line thematically. Love the groove, has that fuck-you energy. Minimal arrangement--drums, vocals, guitar. Nice track. All tracks have been 2 minutes and change so far, a curious choice for an RnB EP.
The Lovey Dovey song: cutesy song on some good old-fashioned loving. Tracks on this EP oscillate between being disappointed with her lover and being head-over-heels in love. Love or a Lesson. This is the former. I guess Mary Ann wants to end with love. Trap-adjacent pop number to close things, not a particularly mind-blowing closer, but tender ending nevertheless.