Pioneering Los Angeles nu-soul scene artist Sy Smith has been doing her thing for more than a decade, with five solo albums and collaborations with icons like Zo!, The Foreign Exchange, and Phonte. She’s also turned her talents to acting, with spots on ‘How I Met Your Mother’, and ‘American Dad’, treating these with the same passion as she does with her music. Everything she touches turns to gold, no less so than her new single and video, ‘Feeling Good’, which features DominiqueXavier, who’s tickled the ivories for Prince, MonoNeon, and Snoh Aalegra, among others.
The song will be familiar to most of us, it’s an update of the 1965 Nina Simone classic, which in itself was a cover. In Sy Smith and DominiqueXavier’s hands, it’s been transformed into a jazzy uptempo tune, with DominiqueXavier on keyboards, assisting Smith to give the song a neo-soul vibe, while maintaining its native vibrancy.
The accompanying video is filled with as much good energy as the new take on ‘Feeling Good’. Sy makes the day instantly better by dancing past her obstructions, and throwing them out with the other rubbish. “Self-doubt,” “uncertainty,” and “apathy”, among other toxic traits, are picked up and put into a giant garbage bag. Smith not only cleans up the neighbourhood, but she also ensures she’s no longer held down by any emotional baggage.
Joining other women outside, Sy is surrounded by bubbles, blown by the Afrofuturistic “Sy Boogie” goddess, each with a new word or positive phrase from which to choose. “Optimism”, and “purpose” are among the words which are claimed by the women, and which are allowed to take control. The Final bubble to float past the screen declares “freedom”; entirely appropriate for a song about “Feeling Good”.
We’ve written about Sy Smith before, and you can read our articles here. Watch the video for ‘Feeling Good’, below, and find out more about this wonderful artist and her music on her official website.
