Sabrina Claudio Seduces in Charming Debut ‘About Time’
By: Sadig Eltigani
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Singer and songwriter Sabrina Claudio, who rose to fame through YouTube, released her intimate debut album About Time on October 5.
People quickly gravitated towards Claudio because her style was unlike any other female alternative R&B artists; her followers on social media and play counts quickly grew from hundreds to thousands.
Claudio’s first experience with recording music was when she started covering popular songs by artists such as Beyoncé, Rihanna and Lorde on her Youtube channel back in 2012.
She then transitioned to SoundCloud, after it became the popular music hub for independent artists.
She started making waves in 2016 when she collaborated with artists like DUCKWRTH; an experience that introduced her to professional music recording.
In April 2016 she released a 6-track Extended Play (EP) entitled Confidently Lost on SoundCloud.
With About Time, she showcased her half-Cuban half-Puerto Rican sultry and alluring vocal style by drawing on influences from contemporary R&B, jazz and electronic music and other genres from her Latino roots, such as Latin jazz.
Her singles Belong to You and Unravel Me, which are part of the album, peaked at numbers 2 and 22 respectively on the Billboard Twitter Emerging Artists Chart.
The 11-track album was written entirely by Claudio and features the newly bred R&B singer 6LACK.
The album was produced minimally by music producer Derek Renfroe, record producer Stint and MAGIC! guitarist Alex Tanas.
Released a year after her highly acclaimed EP, Claudio seems to have maintained her momentum with About Time.
Not only has she improved her songwriting skills, but she also demonstrated a newfound ability to stretch and slow down her voice in a manner that seduces listeners and adds a dreamy feel to the album.
The album mainly deals with Claudio going through phases of self-development and personal growth through her experiences with love.
It unfolds with a poem in the intro track which immediately serve as an insight into her most intrapersonal thoughts before she unveils her journey.
“Will I have accepted the things that I cannot change? And will I have changed the things I cannot accept?,” she sings in the song About Time.
At first listen, themes of intimacy are heavily found in several songs; Belong to You, which was released as a single in late July with an accompanying video, is a beautiful letter to her lover that says that she is his and no one else’s.
The song is different from any of the songs on the album; inspired somewhat by trap music, as seen through its hi-hat rolls – a popular element in modern day R&B.
Unravel Me and Frozen also directly deal with similar themes of intimacy.
Claudio also brings back the neo-soul of the late 90’s in Stand Still. It is a very slow and affectionate song that is delightfully sung. Another great example of Claudio’s technique is found in Wanna Know.
Its composition is very similar to Justin Timberlake’s (Another Song) All Over Again off of Futuresex/Lovesounds.
In Stand Still, however, Claudio doubts whether or not her lover is interested in her as he was before, singing:
“A million times/ I keep on trying/ I’m gonna know if you love me too/ If you don’t, I can’t be in love with you.”
To mark a shift from the slow songs that characterize the majority of the album, Claudio finishes off with the upbeat songs Used To and Wait.
Used To has Claudio passionately singing about her past relationships and what she has learned from them.
The song’s production bares resemblance to that of record producer Black Coffee’s 2011 hit Superman, which was later sampled in Drake’s song Get It Together from his seventh album More Life.
Rooted in Latin jazz, Wait was also a flavourful and evocative finish to the album.
The album is a strong and dazzling debut for Claudio. At the age of 21, she has already carved out her own space and set herself apart from her soul and R&B counterparts such as H.E.R. and SZA.
