On Joeboy’s third album, ‘Viva Lavida,’ it’s clear he has not gotten tired of loving wholeheartedly, or writing the most heartwarming music about it. In 2019 he shot to the limelight via his ‘Love and Light’ EP, brimming with a puppy love that many assumed would wear off after life’s harsh heartbreaks melt his affectionate side, as they so often do. His debut seemed a little too naive at times: “Beginning” had him place all of his possessions on offer, up to and including his life, in exchange for the affections of a woman he was only beginning to fall in love with. Even breakup tracks carried emotional weight: on “Don’t Call Me Back” he speedruns all five stages of grief in under three minutes, eventually landing on a half-sure acceptance: “Don’t call me back when you see say I don dey with another kele.”

Six years later, the 27-year-old Joeboy has not dulled his sense of love and passion, much to the benefit of his audience. His debut album, 2021’s ‘Somewhere Between Beauty & Magic’ did not allocate the overwhelming proportion to love songs that his debut EP did, but when he did love he loved hard: on “Focus,” “Lonely,” “Door,” and “Show Me,” he showed this side of him most earnestly, and those are indeed the songs that resonate most with listeners, and in turn, have reaped the largest commercial returns. 

Joeboy is an artist that defies placement and categorization. In an industry of Big Threes, new Big Threes, and other such strata, he remains largely in his own lane. It’s partly a function of an approach to his career that prioritises promoting the art over the artist, which is good. But it also reflects a sense of stagnation that has hovered over his career the last few years. At his breakout, he was a member of a small contingent of stars – including Rema and Fireboy – destined to rule Nigerian music in its next half-decade, or about now. Today, he’s outgrown “upcoming” classifications by any metric, but has not arrived at the destination his debut charted for him. It puts him in an awkward spot in a country that enjoys ranking its talents. 

Two years ago, ‘Body And Soul’ was an ambitious attempt to solidify his status beyond doubt. It was packed with very successful singles like “Contour” and “Alcohol,” even though the latter was over a year old at that point and hardly fit into the album’s narrative. The record in its majority possessed endearing characteristics, particularly Joeboy’s eye for affectionate music, and the harmony of him intermingling with other honey-toned vocalists like Oxlade, Kemena, and CKay. 

After a fairly amicable split with music artist-turned-mogul Mr. Eazi and his emPawa record label, Joeboy is back in charge of his career. His new self-owned label, Young Legend Ltd., grants him a fresh start, and his first album under the imprint reflects the freedom he operates with. Where another artist in his position might feel pressured to reinvent himself to keep up with the industry’s shifts, Joeboy instead leans deeper into the elements that have defined his artistry so far. In some places he is nearly as dewy eyed as the teenager that debuted with “Baby Girl” eight years ago, like on album opener “Innocent”: “And the other day wey you wonjour me/ See I still come through and I pamper you/ Anytime your heart break oh/ If you tell Joeboy pon deck, I will plaster you.”

In true Joeboy fashion, ‘Viva Lavida’ exposes the full spectrum of romantic affairs, from flirtatious fun numbers that narrate the beginning of a relationship – “Magdalene” highlights sexual attraction against an irreverent backdrop of the New Testament – to more morose tracks that paint the sad, slow end of one. “SMH” and “Streets Are Lonely” find him down the same dark alley as “Don’t Call Me Back” – “If you don’t love me just say it/ You really wanna leave just say it,” he sings on the latter.

‘Viva Lavida’ is his first album without Mr. Eazi as executive producer. Among the cohort of his replacements is Tempoe, the genius behind megahits from Omah Lay, CKay and Joeboy himself. The producer stamps his foot heavily on the album’s musical direction, wearing hats from songwriting to production to co-helming “SMH.” The album benefits greatly from his input, allowing Joeboy to explore a range of sonic pockets within his midtempo Afropop scope. Percussion is colourful and varied, from the Hausa-influenced groove of “Free Of Charge,” to which a brilliant Olamide lends a verse, to the Pon Pon rhythm of “SMH,” which is built on a sample of Indian singer Srinivas’ “Neela Nilave.”. Perhaps Tempoe’s greatest contribution to ‘Viva Lavida,’ though, is his unexpected lending of backup vocals – serenading verses on “Abena” and the silky choruses of “Streets Are Lonely” and “Madgalene.” A dose of brilliant mixing, mostly provided by Oxygen, another executive producer, grants these layered vocals a lush summative shine. Joeboy scripted ‘Viva Lavida’ (which translates as “live life”) as an ode to life and love; the role of his co-creators is to make the album sound as colourful as it reads. They are probably a major reason why Joeboy, presenting his fifth project in six years, can still sound as fresh as he does on ‘Viva Lavida.’

Another of Joeboy’s favorite collaborators, Kemena, returns here, making his mark behind the boards for “Innocent” and “Streets Are Lonely.” Another well delivered feature – a la “The Best For You” off ‘Body And Soul’ – would have fit neatly into this album, but Joeboy goes in a different direction with his guests this time, favouring diversity over homogeneity. Elana Dara, Brazilian singer and a well-picked feature, is one of the album’s brightest sparks, slotting brilliantly beside Joeboy on “Sunset.” They duet for some of the album’s most important lines, longing for “Someone to call my own/ somewhere to call my own.” Sometimes love is simply about finding a safe space in someone else. 

Wizard Chan arrives to close out the album with “I’ll Be Okay,” a sequel to “Alone” off his 2024 album ‘The Messenger,’ that ties up the loneliness that track bemoaned – “I steady focus on my race/ ‘Cause I know nobody will feel my pain/ If I make mistake or if I fail” – in a neat religious bow: “I’ll throw my pain and sorrows away/ Okay, I’ll be okay… He turned the water into wine/ And so he will turn my pain too.” This feature stands out for how it veers from the album’s set direction, but it is preceded by a pair of songs that began the path to the divine: “Hey Father” and “Sinner.” Joeboy’s dive into religion in search of introspection is both novel and laudable, especially against the backdrop of contemporary Afropop, but it hardly fits well with the rest of the album that comes before.

If ‘Viva Lavida’ has any real weakness, it is in the lukewarm writing that hampers some of its choruses. He may not get as many “pen game” plaudits as many of his peers (and he does not shop for them, either), but Joeboy is one of the better romance songwriters of his generation, one of a few who would take the time to spell out desire when a lazy innuendo would serve for most. A few choruses here find him guilty of the same: in the vacuous repetitiveness of “Dance, Abena, Dance” on “Abena,” and his materialistic, haphazard approach on Adenuga: “My money plenty, Adenuga/ You’re driving me crazy like a uber/ Come and chop all my kaluba.” If Joeboy wishes to remain on the creative pedestal his music has placed him on thus far, he will need to steer clear of Afropop’s cheap tropes. 

Still, ‘Viva Lavida’’s flaws are so few and far between that they do not morph into a hindrance to its listening experience, only an unwelcome distraction. For the most part, Joeboy’s new album proves he can maintain his image as the famed loverboy even after being separated from the label that helped him shape it. It gets uneven in places, but a mixture of introspective depth, collaborative and cultural diversity and Joeboy’s seemingly inexhaustible wealth of lovelorn writing makes it another solid addition to his arsenal.