RAVEENA WANTS YOU TO HEAL: ALBUM REVIEW

Spiritual and vibrant, the second studio L.P. from Indian-American singer and instrumentalist Raveena expands the singer's dedication to recovery through music in an experience that can best be described as enchantingly otherworldly. Raveena Aurora, aka Raveena, is a New York-based musician born from Sikh heritage in the desolate land of Massachusetts. After being raised moving from state to state in the New England region of the United States, Aurora found ground in Queens where a love of jazz and golden soul music, along with a talent for harmonious falsettos and guitar riffs, kickstarted a career in the indie scene. 

Aurora's previous works such as her debut E.P. Shanti in 2017 perfectly showcase her jazz influences and angelic voice. Her 2019 record label debut, Lucid, expanded Raveena's style of trip-hop drum beats, calm and enchanting song structures, and vulnerable, relatable poetry that’s silky smooth to the ears. Her sophomore album, Asha’s Awakening, further expands on these ideas and creates a listening experience like no other. 

Asha’s Awakening is a departure from her dreamy, soulful indie establishment that I and so many fans were accustomed to, to a more pop star soundtrack. It is a spiritual epoch that builds upon Raveena's strengths and characteristics and challenges her own internal conflicts in a captivating breath of healing and reflection. 

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Asha’s Awakening is without a doubt Ravenna’s best project to date, but is not without some serious flaws. The first third of this album is an enigma to me. It’s what really holds it back as a solidified body of work. 

I was fully prepared not to enjoy this album based on the two singles leading up to its release. “Secret” and “Rush” are two songs that are very pop in sound and tone with a hint of Raveena's cultural influence sprinkled in there. They weren’t immediately my cup of tea, but to start the album with the two set an expectation for how the entire album was going to sound. Both have beats that quickly feel repetitive, dragging on two minutes too long. The two next tracks really solidified the idea that this was gonna be more of a pop-influenced, R&B record. 

I applaud Raveena for taking bold steps in experimenting with her formula of music, but the course from dreamy soulful indie to a more pop field feels very sudden and drastically hazes the overall concept and direction of this album. There’s a clear start and finish to what feels like the real conceptual part of the album, which begins with Track Number 8: “The Internet Is Like Eating Plastic.” 

“Magic” & “Kismet” are cool in their own right, but don’t really leave a lasting impression. “Kathy left 4 Kathmandu”  is different with a very pop-rock backing instrumental, but still feels very out of place. “Mystery” and “Circuit Board '' are wonderful, but feel sonically disconnected from the previous tracks. “Mystery”’s sound is akin to something from Raveena’s Shanti era, and “Circuit Board” is a heavy, hip hop inspired instrumental that could be put right next to her 2021 single “Tweety” and would make more sense than where it does here. This slew of songs tended to be my least favorite on the record, but it wasn’t until I fully explored the second half that I realized that this sound was purposeful to the album’s overall concept. 

The second half of this album has some of the most beautiful instrumentation and sinfully personable lyrics in Raveena’s entire discography. There are a lot of thematic areas this album explored in its run. Topics of traumatically losing a child, discomfort with the identity of motherhood, losing friends and loved ones, and loving others to the same extent of loving oneself. Raveena takes the listener along on her own journey of self-recovery. 

Though the music is beautiful, Raveena isn’t scared to tackle deeply ugly and uncomfortable topics. Her last L.P. saw the singer tackle sexual assault and relationship abuse. Aurora comes back to this trauma, but with another layer. “Time Flies” brings up an incident of losing a child in wedlock. The song isn’t sad in tone, but deeply reflective on how fragile people are and how inconsistent time on this earth can be. 

Ethereal in nature and stylishly captivating, there’s a three-song run that enchants the listener in a chamber of reflection. “The Internet is Like Eating Plastic” is much like a high rant, with Raveena open monologuing her inner thoughts while the song sounds like it’s detaching from the previous half of the album. 

“Arrival To The Garden of Cosmic Speculation” is just that. You’ve teleported somewhere else this album was nowhere near at the start, marinating on Raveena’s internal monologue and tribulations. “Asha’s Kiss” has the best feature on the project. The inspiration behind the album’s name, the legendary singer Asha Puthli, signals a major success in Raveena’s life, personally and career-wise. There’s a clear moment where this album detaches from a physical plane into something more cosmic and explorative. We, as the listening audience, detach somewhere deep within Raveena’s psyche, exploring something deeply traumatic and beautiful at the same time. 

There’s a moment of clear descent and clear return to form. The first half of this album feels tethered to a material plane, exploring inter-personal connections and livelihoods in very human experiences. The final track is a guided meditation over enchantingly beautiful instrumentation that metaphorically holds your hand as you return back to earth, along with Raveena, a woman haunted by trauma, yet so much stronger than ever. With the same wisdom and strength, you can now summon yourself. This album goes beyond the means of self-help and self-reflection and creates an experience you will come back from stronger just from the first listen.