Maylee Todd - Acts of Love (2017)

Maylee Todd's methodology to music traverses realms of pop, electronic and soul, to positive effect. Acts of Love is her latest endeavour, and it finds the 30-something artist leaning in on an electronic yet organic approach to groove.

While previous efforts — including 2010 debut Choose Your Own Adventure, and 2013's Escapology — were personal outings, Acts of Love takes things to a new level; it's the result of a concerted DIY effort that involved total control of the means of production, from writing, arranging and composing to engineering. In delving into issues of identity, addiction, solitude, forgiveness, fidelity and empowerment, Todd brings forth an intimately constructed, elegantly composed LP of bedroom soul.

"Afanyala" opens things with an impressively intimate touch, a stripped down, Sade-inspired bass and organ piece that discusses wanderlust on both a physical and emotional level. "Virtual Life" is full of '80s electro-soul portent — "Let's synthesize our state for this evening," she sings — in a paean to self-discovery and determination.

Todd pivots with "From this Moment," an understated, strings-underscored empowerment anthem that calls out patriarchy from all angles — perpetrators and enablers alike — to plead for advancement and understanding. "Eye to Eye" commits to sink or swim on its early '80s Madonna dance-pop — complete with Full Force-styled production — and swims ably, while "Disco Dicks 5000," a catchy dance ditty that veers on the right side of sentimentalism, follows in the same throwback flavour.

The electro sweep of "Secret Teacher" reveals Todd's growing compositional and production mastery (and reverence to late '70s hypno-synth sounds), and while the playful soul of "Goat Wut U Need" runs a bit slight, "One of These Days" picks up the pace with a head-nodding midtempo groove and the orchestral "That's All I'll Do" is equal parts reflective and resonant as it wistfully makes peace with a dissolved relationship.

On Acts of Love, Todd has found herself — not committed to any particular genre, but to music highly rooted in authenticity, integrity and emotional complexity. (Do Right!)

Tracklist:
01. Maylee Todd - Afanyala
02. Maylee Todd - Virtual Life
03. Maylee Todd - From This Moment
04. Maylee Todd - Eye to Eye
05. Maylee Todd - Disco Dicks 5000
06. Maylee Todd - Downtown
07. Maylee Todd - Arbys Combo 1
08. Maylee Todd - Lonely
09. Maylee Todd - Poetry of Intuition
10. Maylee Todd - Secret Teacher
11. Maylee Todd - One of These Days
12. Maylee Todd - Part Time Lover
13. Maylee Todd - 110011
14. Maylee Todd - Goat Wut U Need
15. Maylee Todd - Homegurl
16. Maylee Todd - That's All I'll Do
17. Maylee Todd - I Got My Life