Run deep

"The last name should ring a bell. Deva Mahal just happens to be the daughter of blues legend Taj Mahal, and her debut album, Run Deep, is nothing less than a modern soul masterpiece. Introducing the ghosts of the past into a contemporary sprawl of gospel, R&B, rock and pop, the younger Mahal's rich, expansive songwriting yields an engrossing, spiritual listening experience that rises above the everyday ... Deva Mahal's singing will give you goosebumps. It's intoxicating and beautifully sculpted, matching the seductive melodic contours it rolls over. Mournful and soothing, and liberated and dynamic, it is worth the price of admission alone. Pair it with music so fully realized it's hard to believe this is her first LP, and Deva Mahal has stepped out of her dad's shadow with the bold confidence of a star".

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"The daughter of blues legend Taj Mahal has forged her own path towards this debut album - gently rocking soul and R&B that nonetheless feels just apposite enough for 2018. The title track, released last November as part of a three-song EP, garnered some love for the way it filtered vintage Lauryn Hill vibes into an Amy Winehouse earworm ... The album's arc actually finds Mahal wrestling with attraction, love and heartbreak, moving smoothly through various classic tropes - piano balladry, 70s soul - before ending up on the synthetic, 80s-indebted anthem-pop of Wicked. Your ears prick up, too, around the Optimist mark, where a gnarly guitar riff recalls Jimi Hendrix's Foxy Lady. Mahal was recently part of a musical tribute to Led Zeppelin at New York's Carnegie Hall, and there are times here when you wish her ample lungs would cut loose in anger or lust rather than sorrow, and that the album's sepia classicism would find some more room for experimentation".

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