The Portland label known as Fresh Selects has brought us a lot of great music over the last few years since their launch earlier this decade, with a good chunk of their roster coming from the West Coast and Pacific Northwest. However, they have ventured outside of this region into international territory before, such as when they released the excellent album, Cleo, by the Berlin-based artist Charlotte Dos Santos. This time, the label reached out to the UK to find an up-and-coming producer/vocalist/deejay by the name of Emmavie, who in the past has worked with artists such as IAMNOBODI and Jay Prince. She now makes her debut for Fresh Selects with her full-length album, Honeymoon.

First things first – as much as we’re going to talk about Emmavie as a lyricist and vocalist, we need to talk about her work as a producer and multi-instrumentalist first. That’s because as much progress as we’ve made in hip hop, soul, and R&B in getting more women to take the mic, we have a lot more work to do encouraging women to fiddle around with equipment and learn how to make beats, play instruments, and record music. So it should be noted that Emmavie is self-taught, and that with a couple of exceptions on guitar, trumpet, and talk box, she is doing all of the production and live instrumentation on Honeymoon. And how good is she? Well, Emmavie is laying down a lot of really smooth, jazz-influenced neo-soul on this album, with really tight grooves and sexy beats, performed with a veteran knowhow and great feeling. This is an album for the grown folks, to be sure. It’s also a very mature album from a lyrical point of view, with Emmavie very much writing from a place in which she’s having thoughtful discussion about relationships and what she wants out of life, and what she’s willing to sacrifice to achieve these things. It’s not just an album you can get down to, it’s the type of album you can have a conversation with. As a vocalist, Emmavie doesn’t have a big voice, but she does have great control and a great feel for melody as she weaves her way through these sultry grooves that she’s laying down. The only thing this album is missing is that one single that sticks out and stays in your head, which I feel would really put this album over the top.

Emmavie has already done a tremendous amount of work in giving us a really grownup hip hop/soul album in Honeymoon. As much as I like what she’s done here, I can’t wait to see how she builds upon this incredibly sound foundation and takes things to the next level. This lady has a lot of talent, and we’re just now getting to see what she’s capable of.