Lydia Persaud

Lydia Persaud at Hugh's Room, 296 Broadview Avenue

Show at 8pm, Doors at 7pm
$30 in advance, $35 at the door
$15 accessible pricing for students and arts workers.

Lydia performs as part of our Ontario Creates supported Curator Series, this show curated by Sammy Jackson

Lydia Persaud brings a full spectrum of emotion to her latest album, Moody31. Shimmery runs fall alongside precise enunciations that slightly quiver on pitch. A singer with daring range, she stretches words - subtly melismatic, smooth, slantly gospel - to their full emotional capacity. Set for release in April 2022, her sophomore record remodels a multitude of influences into a dynamic and harmonious original. Described by producer Scott McCannell as “Roberta Flack sitting in with Bill Withers' band at a folk festival,” Moody31 recombines jazz, R&B, and folk stylings to create soul music in its most literal sense.

It’s tempting to want to deconstruct her amalgam into its distinct parts, tracing each track’s reference points and divergencies. On "Let Me Be There For You," homage is paid to the beautifully haunting background vocals of Motown legend Mavin Gaye, while the ukulele fingerpicking on "Think Of Me" is approached with the lyrical sensitivities of a storyteller. Without fidelity to a single source of inspiration, Persaud’s arrangements are kaleidoscopic: layered sounds that mimic the prismatic moods of the album. It’s here that brokenness, loss of identity, and glorified independence commingle with self-assurance, acceptance and new beginnings.