Music Review: Legendary Producer Cobhams Asuquo Debut Album ‘For You’ by Dami Ajayi

Artiste – Cobhams ASUQUO

ALBUM – FOR YOU

Producers – Cobhams Asuquo

Guests – Clare Hendershot, Nosa, Aaron Lindsey

Record Label: CAMP (2017)

Duration: 75 Minutes

The name Cobhams Emmanuel Asuquo is not likely to draw blanks from the average Nigerian music lover for obvious reasons. Cobhams, in about a decade of making music, has been responsible for some of the most memorable sounds that have graced our music industry and sonic experiences.

Better known as a music producer and gifted songwriter, you cannot mention a successful alternative music artiste who does not either share Cobhams’s influences or courts his attention in the studio. We know Cobhams’s preferred place is where  music brews , somewhere between piano keys and sonic consoles, somewhere where his essence hovers outside of the recording booth, listening to and for the right notes of his recording artistes which have included Asa, Bez, Darey, Banky W and Omawumi in the past.

In spite of visual impairment, Cobhams found a niche where he is not only relevant but a moving force. Every now and then in his musical career of arranging, production and songwriting, he enters into the booth to record a song or two. Now he has come upon us with an entire album—a rarity—which he calls “For You”.

Before the excited reader begins to attribute Cobhams’s reference a bit too far, the ‘You’ in question is not a fan, a beautiful lady or a significant other. This 14 track album takes its title from a meditative and soulful song addressed to God with a chorus ending on this definitive note: “my soul thirsts for you”.

And this is not the only gospel song on this album; the entire album is a paean, plea and praise compilation dedicated to the Most High.

As expected this album is neither exuberant nor collaborative, it is business-like in its purpose of worship. The music production is elegant without dropping its ambition. The old churchy organ is retained as the pace-maker of the sound and the body of this music is vocals, mostly of Cobhams, except for the occasional back-ups or when he features Aaron Lindsey, Claire Hendershot and Nosa – the only Nigerian musician afforded the grace to sing with Cobhams on this album. To speak a bit about ambition, the clarity of Cobhams’s vision is realised in this album: to make gospel music that moves Christians to worship and non-Christians to the verge of seeking that grace. What is gospel music if not profoundly memorable tunes; Cobhams draws from world-acclaimed evangelists and even covers Sinach’s ‘More of You’ and Hillsong Worship’s ‘Here I am to Worship’.

The secular listener shouldn’t be dismayed just yet. There is the airy ‘Ordinary People’ which preaches about the extra-ordinary exploits of ordinary people—differentiating it markedly from the same-titled breakthrough song of John Legend off his Get Lifted debut album. One can’t have a conversation about the music of Cobhams without discussing his masterful songwriting. It is near impossible to not be moved by the vision of his music. He tells the stories of real people having contemporary experiences. His music fills that void, that lacuna for which silence erstwhile sufficed.  He articulates worship, a poem set to song for the Heavens. One can imagine a full-geared army of choristers rising to make a cantata of any of these songs.

‘For You’ is a moving tour-de-force of messianic worship. Cobhams has released a much awaited debut which is worth our communal wait. He has taken all our experiences and spun a tapestry of artful melodies for God. We may very well listen to it in churches, in our cars and in the comfort of our privacy.