In Defense Of My Own Happiness (Complete)

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It's no surprise Joy Oladokun cites Tracy Chapman as an influence. Armed with a guitar and an achingly beautiful voice, she's cut from the same mold, capable of telling stories with clear-eyed appraisal and unflinching vulnerability. “To see a Black queer woman take the instrument of the standard Americana dude and make it her own and tell her story was maybe the most inspiring thing that could have happened to me,” Oladokun told Apple Music's Ebro Darden in Februrary 2021. Now, <i>in defense of my own happiness</i>, Oladokun's major-label debut, cements her place within a lineage of folk singer-songwriters documenting the complexities of the human experience. The album opens with “someone that i used to be,” a contemplative ode to growth and evolution that she approaches with a level of gentleness often reserved for others but rarely the self. “Having trouble giving grace to every one of my mistake,” she admits in the opening verse, only to later find at least a bit of it: “Looking at the face inside the mirror with kinder eye.” It's this sentiment that underscores the songs here. She's able to muster the strength to be fragile and imperfect, content to not know all the answers—to be a work in progre. .

via Apple Music

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