Roberta Lea - Too Much Of A Woman
By Jof Owen
Roberta Lea’s life affirming celebrations of womanhood and female autonomy are served up with a seriousness and hard-fought joyfulness that comes from fighting for space in a world that wants to do everything in its power to deny it to you.
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Roberta Lea - Too Much Of A Woman
Label: Heaven Lea Records
Release Date: September 29, 2023
Tracklisting:
1. Somewhere In The Tide
2. Girl Trip
3. Too Much Of A Woman
4. Papa Was A Rolling Stone
5. Make Up Your Mind
6. Small Town Boy
7. Midnight Matinee
8. Threw It All
9. Stronger This Time
10. Dinner Sunset Nina Simon
11. So Much More
“Too loud, too strong, too much attitude”, Roberta Lea sings on the title track of her debut long player, Too Much Of A Woman, as she lists all the ways she’s an affront to fragile male egos just by her very existence and standing unapologetically in her power as a woman.
“Too big, too small, we can never measure up,” she sings before delivering the eye-rolling denouement. “If I’m too much of a woman, then you’re too little of a man.”
It’s a beautifully well-rounded record, one that never once lets up over the course of 11 songs that range from the countrified neo-soul of songs like ‘Make Up Your Mind’ to the playful Shania Twain stadium pop of ‘Girl Trip’ and the out and out country of ‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ and ‘Small Town Boy.’
In a genre where songs about loving yourself and feeling empowered too often feel throwaway or simplistic, Roberta Lea’s life songs land differently. Her life-affirming celebrations of womanhood and female autonomy are served up with a seriousness and hard-fought joyfulness that comes from fighting for space in a world that wants to do everything in its power to deny it to you.
Too much of something isn’t always such a bad thing.
8/10
Too Much Of A Woman is out now via Heaven Lea Records.
