“Mum Does the Washing” Is the Spoken-Word Anthem I Didn’t Know I Needed
This miraculous song by Nigerian British poet Joshua Idehen is a manifesto, stand-up routine, and dancefloor banger rolled into one.
I don’t have anything against spoken-word music, but I’m not usually rushing to hear an album if I come across that descriptor. I’m just too attracted to the possibilities of melody, rhythm, and phrasing to get very excited about a vocalist whose approach might involve a certain inattention to those qualities. There are exceptions, of course—I love Gil Scott-Heron and Bill Callahan as much as anybody; for a long time, my favorite Kanye song was the slam-poetic power ballad “Never Let Me Down”—but this is my truth. I like poetry on the page. We may be a few years into a sprechgesang renaissance, but if I’m listening to music, I’d rather hear someone who can sing or rap.
So I’m not sure what inspired me to click on “Mum Does the Washing,” by Joshua Idehen, a Nigerian British poet now based in Sweden, while poking around Bandcamp for new music the other day. The evocative Englishness of the title, maybe, or a note about Idehen’s past contributions to albums I’ve enjoyed by the various bands of the London jazz woodwind player Shabaka Hutchings, or just because I like the turquoise-lit portrait of the artist looking dapper and insouciant on the cover of the EP. In any case, I’m very glad I did.
