“Your influence, round of applause, losing more than I have won.” These are lyrics from Joy Crookes’s song “Sinatra” from her debut album Influence released on July 13, 2018. Just like the lyrics of her song, Crookes’s music is written using her own experience, incorporating themes such as relationships, culture, and her own self- identity in current society. “Sinatra” is not the only song that talks about how society has influenced her. Each of the five songs on her album expresses different emotions and delivers different messages to her listeners.

Joy Elizabeth Akther Crookes is a British neo-soul singer and songwriter who is part Bangladeshi and of Irish heritage. Her music is inspired by rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music. At the age of 17, Crookes released her first song “New Manhattan,” which later became part of her five-song debut album Influence. This album lasts around 20 minutes, beginning with “Sinatra,” followed by the track “Bad Feeling,” “New Manhattan,” “Mother May I Sleep With Danger,” and finishing with “Power.” On the album, Crookes deals with issues such as cultural identity, natural human emotion, temptations, feminism, and self-empowerment with an honest, unapologetic attitude.

The songs on her album can be considered a form of narration like she is telling her personal story. In particular, “Mother May I Sleep With Danger” talks about Crookes’s willingness to reveal her emotions and vulnerabilities by making it seem as if the song was written as a note to her mother. This song has a beat that is easy to follow and sounds relatively upbeat compared to the lyrics. She mentions that danger did not allow her to dream, so her future was just a wish — but attheendofthesong,sheendsitona positive note by saying, “but now it’s more than a wish, it’s a dream.” Overall, in this song, she is able to express and freely say that love should not be a feeling to hide, and it is not dangerous to feel love.

Additionally, “Power” exposes the ugly truth behind feminism and cultural inequality found in people with great power. According to an interview with Hot Press, the Irish online newspaper, Crookes said the “track came from a lot of things...it came from Trump being elected. It came from watching the women in my family experience the things that they have.” Indeed, this song has a mysterious tone compared to previous music. The lyrics mention women’s power in society when she says, “You seem to forget you came here through a woman, show some...respect.” She also refers to cultural inequality when she says, “yellow polka dot burkini that they stole off her body that day.” The burkini mentioned in the song comes from controversy back in 2009 when the government in France tried to abolish burkinis — a swimsuit designed for Muslim women to wear.

Crookes’s music can soothe the listeners as she talks about her serious feelings and experiences in a calm tone. Even though her music contains heavy topics, she can easily turn them into music that does not offend on a professional level and it allows listeners to feel what she is feeling. Overall, Crookes’s album Influence delivers songs that not only express her feelings but allow other listeners to empathize and connect with her music.