Leyla McCalla - Sun Without the Heat Review

Casual listeners will find an album packed with melody and beautiful instrumentation but scratch the surface and you’ll discover an artist on a mission to unearth a higher truth about herself and the world as a whole. 

Leyla McCalla’s fifth solo album was recorded in just over a week at Dockside Studios in New Orleans, a phenomenal accomplishment considering that over the course of its ten tracks, it manages to traverse centuries of musical heritage whilst at the same time tackling everything from motherhood to the abolitionist movement. Multi-instrumentalist McCalla draws upon her unquestionable talent to weave a bold tapestry of sonic ideologies, effortlessly harvesting from her many influences, including folk, country, afro-jazz and Brazilian tropicalismo. 

McCalla has stated that recording Sun Without the Heat in such a short timeframe was intimidating but the results speak for themselves. Whether she’s inviting us to dance on tracks like the celebratory Take Me Away or serenading us with delicate folk ballads like Give Yourself a Break, there’s an irresistible sunny charm to the album that’s prevalent throughout. 

Born in New York to Haitian parents McCalla’s early career saw her as the cellist in the Grammy award-winning The Carolina Chocolate Drops, later she would be a founding member of the banjo playing four-piece Our Native Daughters. Her solo output spans just over a decade with Sun Without the Heat feeling like her most personal work to date. Here, McCalla finds a balance between her pursuits as an artist and activist, whilst also managing to be superbly melodious. 

First track Open The Road sets the tone nicely. Shimmering guitars dance around frantic drums in a way that is reminiscent of the late great afro-jazz master Oliver Mtukudzi, (high praise indeed). Summery verses give way to a rousing chorus, with the lilting refrain “open the road, carry me home” souring, as both the song and McCalla circle back to themselves. Second track Scaled to Survive ups the ante even further. It’s a lyrical tour de force, “One ear to the earth, one ear to the sky, reminds me that life is not a straight line” she avows in the mists of tipsy calypso guitars. 

The crunchy kinetic rhythms of Take Me Away show us that McCalla is an artist abundant with ideas before So I’ll Go and Tree brings us back into more familiar but no less enjoyable territory. 

The second half of the album doesn’t quite reach the heights of the first but still has more than its fair share of sublime moments. The title track is a delicately strummed folk song in the most traditional sense. “Can’t have the sun without the heat” she laments, a sentiment lifted from an 1857 speech by the African-American civil rights activist Frederick Douglass. 

Album highlight Love We Had, (originally recorded by the Ethiopian singer Ali Birra) is a rousing call to arms which mourns the loss of young love and innocence. It gives way to the stripped-back acoustic folk lullaby Give Yourself a Break before McCalla bows out softly with I Want to Believe, a delicate piano/cello composition which hints at hope despite the hardships. 

There’s a lot to admire about Sun Without the Heat. Casual listeners will find an album packed with melody and beautiful instrumentation but scratch the surface and you’ll discover an artist on a mission to unearth a higher truth about herself and the world as a whole.