On her debut album My Ego Told Me To, Leigh-Anne isn’t attempting on a very new persona, she’s reviving the pink haired firebrand who first stormed onto The X Factor stage, and daring the trade to maintain up. After greater than a decade as one quarter of Little Mix, this debut album looks like each reckoning and launch.
Leigh-Anne describes My Ego Told Me To as “versatile, rooted in reggae and my heritage, but stamped with pop,” and that duality defines its sonic journey. Opener “Look Into My Eyes” instantly units the tone: a Caribbean choir-like intro melts into pounding drums and a quick digital pulse, undercut by a gradual reggae backdrop. The repetition of its central chorus feels confrontational, virtually hypnotic, earlier than the monitor dissolves again into reggae textures at its shut. The shifting manufacturing mirrors the album’s wider narrative. It’s a intelligent structural selection, the place heritage doesn’t adorn the album relatively vegetation its basis.
That reclamation is sustained on “Revival”. Built on reggae rhythms and punctuated by echoing advert-libs that really feel like inner monologue, Leigh-Anne vegetation her flag within the lyrics “I’ll never back down.” The vocal layering gives the look of her arguing with, and, in the end empowering – herself. The message declaring autonomy is obvious, however at occasions you lengthy for a extra poetic flip of phrase to match the richness of the instrumentation.
That inner tug of struggle is most compelling on “Best Version of Me”. Fast-paced and stressed, the monitor mirrors the chaos of self-confrontation. “I’ve been running away from myself for a while / I’m fighting for the best version of me,” she admits, her voice slicing clear by means of the beat. The urgency feels genuine, although the shiny manufacturing generally smooths over the rawness the lyrics trace at. One can’t assist however surprise how devastating it may need been had the association stripped again additional, permitting the vulnerability to take a seat unguarded.
Elsewhere, the album broadens its emotional palette. “Me Minus U” leans into glossy pop romanticism, whereas “Goodbye Goodmorning” captures the liminal house between intimacy and independence with understated restraint. “Free” stands tall as a press release of self-perception, “Baby I could lose a mil and I’d make it right back / What’s the point in living if you don’t fight back,” embodies the album’s thesis of resilience by means of ego.
Rooted in Caribbean sonics My Ego Told Me To strikes with a transparent sense of identity from its very first beat. The mix of reggae, pop and R&B feels intentional and unified, even in moments the place a shiny end softens some of its rawer edges. Ultimately, it is a report about autonomy, about reclaiming voice, honouring heritage and stepping totally again into Leigh-Anne’s personal fireplace.
My Ego Told Me To is just not about changing into somebody new. It’s about remembering who you had been earlier than the noise set in and most significantly, having the nerve to be her once more.
