Album Review: Joy Oladokun, Proof of Life

Is it too early to call the best album of the year? Top five maybe? No matter its final ranking, Proof of Life, the fourth studio set from American singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun — prefaced by five sterling singles and featuring guest appearances from Mt. Joy, Manchester Orchestra, Chris Stapleton, Maxo Kream, and Noah Kahan, no less — is fantastic. Really, truly, heart-stoppingly fantastic and almost unassailably pretty.

There’s no metric by which Proof of Life doesn’t soar though Oladokun’s voice and lyrics are genuine showstoppers. The former is like a warm hug, a gentle vibrato that’s elastic yet polished and as relaxed as you’d expect from someone unabashedly comforted by fat blunts. If a swatch of velvet could sing, it’d sound like Oladokun who abets her gorgeous voice with seriously picturesque imagery so sharply drawn it might have been lifted straight from her journal.

But what does Proof of Life sound like? Tough question to answer since Oladokun has zero respect for musical boundaries, comfortably shifting between country ballads (“Sweet Symphony,” a duet with Stapleton), shimmering pop (the sparkling yet sad “Taking Things for Granted” and yearning “Somebody Like Me”) and the soulful “Revolution” which is goosed by torrent of raps by Maxo Kream. Binding the songs are Oladokun’s lyrics; if there’s a thematic commonality, it’s affirmation of spirit, of vulnerability, and humanness delivered by someone you suspect knows a thing or two about being a square peg. Truly a crowning achievement.

Proof of Life was released April 28, 2023.
Listen to it here.