Beautiful Imperfection

iTunes Review

Asa’s second full-length, Beautiful Imperfection, speaks a sort of international musical language that goes down nice and easy. It combines indie pop and neo-soul and occasionally mixes in other elements such as reggae to craft a pleasant sound. The singer/songwriter, born Bukola Elemide, is based in Paris and grew up in her parents’ native Nigeria, but she mostly sings in English. Beautiful Imperfection is a generally happy affair, and even when Asa sings of the world’s problems (on “Maybe”) the music is comforting. The piano ballad “Questions” has a somber quality rare in this context, and the sparely arranged track, with its distant marching drums, is highly effective. Three songs are sung in Yoruba (the appealing “Bimpé,” the swoony “Oré,” and the upbeat “Broda Olé”), but none displays an obvious Nigerian influence; stylistically they’re cut from the same cloth as the rest of the material. There are two bonus cuts: “Iba” (a piece of smooth R&B that also has Yoruba lyrics) and the bilingual “Bamidélé” (where Asa is backed by strings).