Mon Rovîa - Act 3: The Dying of Self


Tonight's album is a special request from my friend Shauna Conway, and wow is it gorgeous.

Mon Rovîa (more specifically "monroviaboy") is the artist, and his new EP Act 3: The Dying of Self is the album. Obviously we're also going to listen to Acts 1 and 2 as well, but longtime readers will know how much I adore listening to things out of order. I'm also a big fan of explaining the artistic context up front so that we never have to play the pseudo-musicological guessing game of Artistic Intent. 

Janjay Lowe was adopted by Christian missionaries during the Liberian Civil War (technically 2 by proxy civil wars stretching from 1989 to 2003), now lives in Tennessee, says his primary musical influences are Bon Iver and Vampire Weekend, and plays Ukulele. I'm already hooked.

You know Araminta Ross as Harriet Tubman, adopting her mother's name when she married John Tubman. That's the concept we're delving into with Act 3: The Dying of Self, a complex, multi-layed story about love turning you into a new person. Where you are is all that's real. Sometimes you have to press pause to fully realize you're a new person watching that Showtime "unlikely buddy cop" drama about the corrupt 1990s Boston criminal justice system, City on a Hill.

No, that can't be right, he's probably referring to the 1630 John Winthrop sermon about "a society that is a model of virtue and excellence," to quote google's AI overlord [snap] I mean overview. Pardon my vernacular, but damn is this good, both musically and intellectually. Describing it all as Ukulele arpeggios with lush ambient orchestral accompaniment doesn't do it any justice at all. Now we absolutely have to hear the trilogy from the top.

I'll put links at the end, but if you want to search them out before reading my reaction, here are the EPs:

Act 1: The Wandering

Act 2: Trials

Act 3: The Dying of Self

We start with a contemplation of loneliness and a hope for escape, move through the realization that we can live another life, and ultimately see that it is not our need to be loved, but our ability to love, that defines us. Our hearts were made to cross the line. I'm on record saying Des'ree didn't do that message justice (even though i like her very much) in her Pop Yoga style, and now i can without hesitation suggest Mon Rovîa instead.

Bon Iver meets Vampire Weekend indeed, ethereal orchestral ambience supporting an incredibly well read and well understood melange of cultural/historical metaphor. A trilogy of EPs that reward both casual listening and deep Google searching is right up every alley I love to frequent. I can't recommend Mon Rovîa highly enough, and I probably never would have stumbled across his music on my own without Shauna's recommendation. Where you are is all that's real, and where I am right now is deeply immersed in audio gorgeousness.

Links:

YouTube

Act 1:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nnHBjRauxAyTRvjwtOCFzEv48s91BXQW0&si=9tYxFnuMg716hFUU

Act 2:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nqovR7mH9LZ4mn4cA3IE_5PB8IPoU2j18&si=O3hFtwuGK1KVCEvF

Act 3:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nh3Ievm_akuf_1OAoRC3JlMviO1G0E1wI&si=vB8U9LJnWh12gFdO

Act 3 on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/album/77hndvEyvuHleU1AXdHIVC

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