If you know nothing about Speech Debelle, it doesn't matter. As the title indicates, not a tune on Speech Therapy goes by without the revelation of more back story. Eight half-siblings, expulsion from school and an absent father no doubt account for much of the hug-me hurt, startlingly so on "Daddy's Little Girl" on which -- care of the ensemble gathered by the producer Wayne Lotek -- muted electric piano eddies around a direct address to the father, with a chorus that stretches the fabric of bearability with just two lines: "I am daddy’s little girl/That makes me tough."

...If she never uttered another word into a microphone, Debelle could content herself with the knowledge that she said it all on Speech Therapy’s penultimate track. "Finish This Album" starts with a thumbnail lyrical sketch of passengers on a bus, spidering out into a rhapsodic note to self, Debelle balancing regrets about the past with worries about the children she has yet to have, like a South London hybrid of Lauryn Hill and Tracy Chapman.

Read the full review. [★★★★★]

Recommended Tracks:
The Key
Daddy's Little Girl