Album: L.A.X – No Bad Vibes
L.A.X’s career has always been super-charged. From being introduced to mainstream audiences with a lively Wizkid collab to receiving public acceptance for his Fuji-inflected sound, the singer born Damilola Afolabi has always found ways to interpret the heart of Afropop for aural bangers that live long in collective memory. 2018’s Rasaking was a sprawling ode to being young, finding love, and attempting to live vicariously in the public’s eye. On its 2020 follow-up, ZaZa Vibes, the singer displayed a heightened mastery of his emotions, delivering buttery mid-tempos in service of romantic bliss and general satisfaction with life. More importantly, ZaZa Vibes helped confirm L.A.X’s status as one of the most cogent afropop acts, and that knowledge, as well as a new-found self-assurance in his skills, helps bring forth his 2023 album, No Bad Vibes.