On the 28th of May, Lady Donli released her new EP, This Feels Like An Interlude.

The project had been preceded by Keep On Loving Me(Biko Biko), a single that boasted of production from Yinka Bernie, had infectious drums and a melody that stings the heart, Donli tries to remind her lover of all the love they have shared and the extent of their closeness in an attempt to get them to keep loving her, this is a beautiful solemn start to the project, but if you think this is how it goes for the next 3 songs, you’re wrong.

The next song, Supposed 2 Do, which she calls the avoidant anthem, opens with the lines,

“Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, you love me, now what-what am I supposed to do? Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, you need me, now what-what am I supposed to do?”

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The chorus of the song, decorated by drums that worm their way into your brain, makes this song in many ways a reverse of Biko Biko, where in the first song, she was asking to be loved, in this song, she’s the one being loved, and rejecting it, disregarding the love, shunning it, saying it isn’t her problem, her business, oh wow!

The next song, I NO KNOW, takes us back to square one, I wonder sometimes about love, all the confusion that comes with it, the questions you have to constantly ask yourself, all the uncertainties, all the worries of the world, so many of these, no answers, but there’s a but, and that’s what Donli brings to us in this song, she no know how dem go be, she just wants to know if her baby still loves her, she’s constantly visited in dreams, she’s constantly confronted by the presence in absence of their love, and even though, she calls out to them, sweet names and longing, the future is unsure, but the love she has for this person is true, she doesn’t know if the feelings are reciprocated but in some moments, she feels it.

The next and last song, Time Heals, my favorite and in my opinion the most painful, it’s instantly depressive,

“Time heals all wounds, but I don’t see myself healing any time soon.”

The first lines that throw you into the song, lover where art thou? Why have you abandoned me? Donli has to watch her lover move on, love someone else, while they wait and watch, blaming themselves, asking what this new person could give that she couldn’t, I’m moved to tears, time is an awful doctor, they should get their license revoked, a quack, a hack, a poser, nothing is healing, we’re stuck in perpetual mourning, trying to manufacture hate for this person who left us alone, who is cold now apparently, who seems to have forgotten their way home, but we love too much, too hard, too passionately, why?

This Feels Like An Interlude is an emotional pendulum, we’re swung back and forth with Donli and her emotions, her voice as magical as ever, the production shines through, the grooves and hard beats accentuate the overall vibe as all the songs melt straight through our ears straight to our chest where our heart and soul lay. Listening to this EP, Donli shifts through a variety of genres with every song, funk, rock, soul, channeling(if I may) Santigold, Onyeka Onwenu, Janelle Monae’s grooviness with her own spin, the drums and her voice take center stage on this, while we’re being tossed around her feelings, the songs remain catchy and fluid. This is the first of three EPs the artist has planned for release this year, fans complaining that the project is too short and they were left begging for more, it’s easy to interpret the EP title as literally an interlude for more music, but by the last song, Time Heals, I recognize that the interlude she’s talking about is the absence of love so prevalent in the songs, but here’s the thing, interludes end, life continues, wounds heal, love is found again, but forgive my pessimism for allowing myself to sink when the curtain falls, when her voice fades and the song stops, the pendulum has stopped swinging, I cannot speak to the extent of how much I know love, it feels like the more I learn, the less I understand it, this project made me feel seen, interpret it as an interlude if you want, get some hope from it if you want, I no know how e go be, but I don’t see myself healing anytime soon. I am heartbroken, this feels final. This Feels Like An Ending.

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