Aisha Badru - 'Prisoners & Guards'
Aisha Badru explores the theme of breaking out of cycles of pain on unfeigned new single, ‘Prisoners and Guards’ taken from her upcoming EP, ‘Road To Self’.
Aisha Badru’s vocal is one of my favourite sounds in the world. Fragile, soulful, blemished , beautiful, it seeps emotion, vulnerability and humility that impacts greatly with me. Having spent a fair amount of time listening to Aisha Badru’s beautiful debut album, ‘Pendulum’ in my personal time, my heart has ached alongside her voice and empathised deeply with the melancholy, heartache and pain in her lyrical themes, even when my own heart wasn’t hurting.
’Prisoners & Guards’ is a lovely first look into Badru’s follow-up EP, ‘Road to Self’ due for release June 7th via Nettwerk and it has everything you could want from an Aisha Badru song, but also signifies growth and healing. It’s a lyric-led track where Badru’s raw vocal is at the forefront of the song, accompanied by minimal folk arrangements; the gentle strumming of a guitar, the ambient, natural sample of falling rain before gradually building into a subtly orchestral, ethereal piece of music that feels really transformative, as Badru looks towards the light repeating the mantra, “I used to be afraid of the dark”.
The track was inspired by one of Badru’s dreams where she found herself trapped in a prison, only to discover the prison guard was herself. It’s a profound look into how we can often be the only person standing in our way when it comes to reclaiming ourselves and shedding the weight of emotional burdens that we do not need to carry with us. An empowering and insightful look into re-connecting with ourselves and taking action to become free from past pains that keep us in cages in our own minds.
Words of Karla Harris