*sighs deeply* The Nigerian music industry witnessed an uprising when former C.E.O and co-owner of now defunct music label, Mo Hits took to Twitter to announce a new label with names of artistes under the new imprint. Don Jazzy disclosed the name of the new label as ‘Mavin Records’. The label proudly houses belter ‘Wande Coal’, fast-rising diva ‘Tiwa Savage’, rapper turned singer ‘Dr. Sid’ and talker*strike-through* rap-singer ‘D’Prince’ with K-Switch missing in action. The heavy weight producer promised a compilation album and revealed the LP’s artwork. 24 hours later, in our hands lies Solar Disaster*strike-through* ‘Solar Plexus’. The 12-track compilation album comprises of music from the Mavin Stars (Tiwa Savage, Wande Coal, D’Prince and Dr. Sid), individual songs with additional vocals from Don Jazzy.

The album which is production-driven, has Michael Collins on the steering delivering the first miss on the LP ‘I’m a Mavin’. The 5:22 track features all acts on the new label, meant to be the label’s anthem it fails to quench our thirst for GOOD music; you find Coal on the chorus flexing his vocal muscles with Dr. Sid, Tiwa Savage and D’Prince falling flat on their faces. Next track features Tiwa Savage layering her sultry vocals on a hip-shaking beat. ‘Oma Ga’ is a solo-number with the Kele Kele Love singer and thankfully is a winner. The doctor apparently recently realized you only live once and makes life unpleasant for the rest of us with the mess he calls a chorus.

Terrible to the ears, he chants ‘YOLO’ repeatedly and calls it the chorus. In an attempt to spice up the not so fantastic music, a introductory robotic voice which appears in the first 6 tracks only make matters worse. Wande Coal puts his chords to action in ‘Se Me Ri’ and D’Prince employed the rumored Wizkid authored phrase Take Banana Till You Go Yo… in the infectious and sadly potential club banger ‘Take Banana’. ‘Solar Plexus’ has a very memorable unappealing number talking about D’Prince’s ‘Why You Over There’ nonetheless Wande Coal hits the bulls-eye in ‘Forever’.

Sadly Wande Coal fails to shine and might be losing his X-Factor, this he proves again on the track ‘Pretty Girls’. Dr. Sid tries his hands on a genre out of his range in ‘CPR’ but obviously lacks the vocal prowess to give life to the techno-influenced instrumentation nonetheless he delivers on the club-friendly ‘Chocolate’. D’Prince sings on a familiar high-life tune in ‘Amarachi’.

‘Solar Plexus’ lacks the chemistry found on Mo’ Hits 2007 compilation album ‘Curriculum Vitae’, and is a very weak record as an introductory offering from a new label. The album gives the impression of a hurriedly packaged work with so-so lyrics, ill-matched materials and several hit-miss moments, causing the overall LP to suffer heavily. Fortunately Don Jazzy’s production, with tracks ‘Oma Ga’ and ‘Chocolate’ are the LP’s only saving grace. Undoubtedly the absence of international pop act ‘D’banj’ and brother K-Switch is heavily felt.

‘Solar Plexus’ as a production driven LP is very much lacking the K.O quality a debut offering the Don’s new label ought to pack….unfortunately the all star line serves as the achilles heel to this LP. The overall quality of the LP fails to match its sub-title as it doesn’t pack enough power to have its intended effect as a gut punch and ultimately doesn’t knock the wind out anyone, let alone the intended target.