“Fie Sile” Achieves Emotional Clarity Through A  Songwriter’s Sustained Effort 

Every now and then, a song is released that surpasses expectations. From the little corner of its creation, the qualities are recognized for bigger and grander locales, and such a song is not planned towards. It just happens. 

I’m talking here particularly about Fie Sile, a record from Nini Ariyo, which was written by Olamilekan Omolulu Ariwayo. Thankfully, music audiences at home have grown past the pushback against the collaborative edge of songwriting, which means many artists have been able to express themselves more clearly and better than if they were working alone, limited in range by their solo perspective. 

One notices the compactness of effort on Fie Sile, whose writing allows the singer the space for vocal detail. Freed to work up her own technical ability, we first fall in love with the voice, but over time, one indeed listens to the actual content. 

“Here I go, I’m still thinking about it / hoping that my demons will come back to me,” thus begins this startling song of tender admission. A poetic sense of placeness already follows the first couplet, giving the listener little to work with by way of specifics. This fires up the narrative promise, and Olamilekan’s pen doesn’t let the tension drop. 

Before long, we’re indeed made to know who’s uttering these words: it’s a character who’s been left in the backroads of love, unsure of who and what to believe in. So much so that the prospect of “be the girl to hold [him] down” doesn’t even appeal. This progression is tracked by the production, which during the Yoruba-laden run up to its chorus, soars with sparse percussion and delicately placed notes. 

By the end of the song, we’re cast into the same uncertainty being felt by the central character. Even as we can’t divorce the symbiotic pulse of the singing, we’re most struck by the emotional scales achieved within the writing. It’s the wonderful collaborations such as these that prove the malleable grace of music, that two people’s gifts would fuse so beautifully to make art of such transcendent poise.  

Fie Sile executes a soulful atmosphere worthy of early Asa, weaned to an effective state of melancholy through the songwriter’s sustained effort. It’s rooted in the Yoruba oratory tradition but not limited by it, dispensing wisdom that can only be earned through the complex affairs of love and life.