When The Sky Fills With Falling Stars

Laura Mvula “Make Me Lovely”

“Make Me Lovely” is one of those rare, special songs that is both marvelously ambitious and seemingly effortless in its construction. There’s a lot of things coming together here – mannered neo-soul, nuanced orchestration, a touch of jazz, a melodic sensibility somewhere between ’70s Paul McCartney and prime Stevie Wonder. The composition mirrors the epic turmoil of the lyrics, in which Mvula attempts to distance herself from a partner who could not accept her as she is, and tried to make her into something else: “I can’t make you love me / you can’t make me lovely.” The music, with its 20th century glamor, make the declarative lines come across as magical epiphanies, and each time the musical stakes are raised, she sounds closer to a point of being entirely rid of this person who has held her back.

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