Jorja Smith - 'Falling or flying'
In the wake of her summer hit Little Things Jorja Smith releases the sixth and titular track from her eagerly awaited second album Falling or Flying - scheduled for release on the 29 September. Smith secured her status as one of the most exciting artists in the R&B and soul soundscape back in 2018 with the release of her debut album Lost and Found. The symmetry between the name of her first and second albums is demonstrative. Her music, then, and today moves effortless between highs and lows, soaring, plummeting, knowing your self and coming undone, but always delivered with confidence and finesse.
This has never been more true than it is for the very sleek single Falling or Flying. Smith’s vocals command from the off; low and cool she introduces herself with a hint of indifference ‘If you’re waiting for a sign to come and hold me, well you might as well spend your night guessing’. However, as her vocals climb and the electric twang of the guitar enters the scene we understand that any of the detachment we detected in the opening few lines was a front. She cares more than she would like to. Her soaring soprano is confessional asking rhetorically ‘Who else could get me to fall from these heights?’
The layered beat drives the record in such a satisfying way. They put the base down and pick it back up again throughout underpinning the tension between Smith’s desire and her restraint. The final chorus is stripped back to the vocals and the clean pause and play on the beat that has built throughout. It ultimately cuts out leaving you expectant and wanting a little more.
The accompanying video is Smith’s directorial debut. It is set in space with the zero gravity conditions ironically containing her between the motions of falling and flying. The dark captivity that stages the video perfectly conveys the tracks sense of isolating longing and sleepless nights.
Words by Romey Kinsella
