Album Review: “Let Her Rock: A Love Letter” — A Song For Life & Various Artists
Listen to the full project on Spotify here.
My mother, Hope Daley-Derry — a true renaissance woman — plunged into entrepreneurship and built A Song For Life, a 501c3 nonprofit organization, from scratch in 2018. She has since built a network of over 100 artists — many of whom she watered, fed and watched grow as artists in my father’s vocal class — who have joined the A Song For Life network, and help drive forth ASFL’s mission to raise awareness about crucial issues plaguing our communities. And today A Song For Life has released its stellar debut EP.
Let Her Rock: A Love Letter EP is a collection of ten commissioned original songs and two spoken word pieces, written & recorded in NYC. Powered by a pre-pandemic grant from the New York City Women’s Fund, the project stems from guidance to craft works that would speak to our young women. The result is a multi-genre project featuring voices of women from different ethnic and nationality backgrounds, sexual orientations, and perspectives. Its a prototype that demonstrates you can blend multiple sounds and sonic approaches on one project and the overarching theme of women empowerment still reigns true. The phenemonenon does not have a sound or genre–simply an intention.
A Song For Life was founded through tragedy — one of my father’s vocal clients, Cjay, was tragically gunned down on the way to my father’s workshop 9 years ago. It led my mother on a search for a way to do something in response to this tragedy. She was led back to our vocal community, the same ones who surrounded him as he fought for his life in that hospital bed in 2015. These artists had boundless creativity and incredible reach, and with the right platform could encourage more positive messaging in our music and speak up for what they believe in, whether it be gun violence, mental health, or women empowerment. In that hospital room, A Song For Life was born.
5 years later, the organization has expanded upon its roots in gun violence with Let Her Rock, an EP aimed at women and girls around the world. The project is a whirring survey of womanhood and NYC hustle. The EP’s strongest suit is its ability to embody freedom in style, delivery, approach, and sound — within a flexible prompt — and still emerge sonically and thematically cohesive. That quality is how we end up with Sam Champagne’s Y2K grunge-rock bop “Letter to Her” sandwiched between Bubblesz’ whispered and frail lullabye turned ass-shaking, infectious empowerment anthem “You Got This Girl,” and the stunningly and immediately classic R&B ballad “Back to Life” by Rizwan.
Let Her Rock also balances the highs and lows — we viscerally feel the anguish on Maxx Nies’ emotional “Lowest” and desperation on Tsebiyah’s anthemic “A Seat On The Train.” We dance it out on Perri Jones’ soulful “Blessed,” Ajantha’s dancehall inspired “Independent Girls,” and Meluchis’ Latin-tinged “Call On Me.” We don’t fear or romanticize girlhood either — we crash head on into the tension on Amber Lee’s monstrous “Angel’s Pain”, and make room for healing on Aye’oo Cass’ effervescent “Wildflower” — and even more space for wistful dreaming on Kayana’s ethereal, afrobeat-driven “Already Famous.” Throughout the album, spoken word grounds us in its mission, first with an opening poem from Tsebiyah entitled “Little Sister.” She takes the prompt head-on, speaking directly to our listener: “Resist the urge to define yourself from the outside in/Live out every dream/There are no rules/You deserve a beautiful life.” You deserve a beautiful life. The album that follows paints out that mantra — ten incredible NYC based women painting, outlining and imagining what their deserved beautiful life feels and looks like, accurately painting the rawness of the emotional journey there. The cohesive message is the individuality of each artist — there is no one size fits all story to what womanhood is and what it means to go after your dreams. All you can do is showcase a variety of perspectives.
Amber Lee’s booming, masterful “Angel’s Pain” instantiates that message with its opening lyrics — “this is not female empowerment / this is late night putting the hours in.” On an album driven by a mission to empower women, it’s important to name explicitly how hollow that mission often ends up being in a world so spoiled rotten with consumption/consumerism/capitalism, that would much rather erase more complex stories of womanhood when it doesn’t suit their narrative. Let Her Rock is a bold statement: empowerment of women is action — it’s not always pretty, or easy, or palatable to those who would prefer it was. It’s about radical imagination, and fighting to build a world for which there is no blueprint — you are already famous.
“Angel’s Pain” ends with powerful words from LSU Basketball-star Angel Reese: “This is for the girls that look like me, who are tryna speak up for what they believe in.” She ends with a question: “Well, what are you gonna say now?” After hearing eleven women deliver such candid, powerful sonic messaging, bringing you on an inspiring and emotional labyrinthine journey — what else could you say but bravo.
