Davido – TIMELESS (Album)

The much-awaited “TIMELESS” album by DMW upstart and singer Davido has been made available.

Davido, a Nigerian superstar, has made it his life’s work to elevate the pursuit of thrills.

A significant portion of the singer’s more than ten-year reign at the pinnacle of Afropop has been devoted to creating euphoric moments when the wall between the music, audience, and performer explodes into white-hot moments of frantic joy.

Every record release has seemed to advance that goal. With Omo Baba Olowo (2012), a swashbuckling collection of songs that positioned him as an iconoclast with a vision of upending the established order of the genre, he made his entrance onto the scene.

On his sophomore LP, A Good Time, Davido reflected on his rising global profile vis-à-vis Afropop’s western push, while album number three, A Better Time, stood out as a beacon of light from the lonesome, uncertain moodscape of 2020’s COVID-19 disruptions.

As with all success stories, these moments of elation and escape have come with prickly instances of sorrow and pain. Timeless, Davido’s highly anticipated fourth album, follows a period of such intensely personal losses and an extended retreat from the public eye after the tragic passing of his son in 2022.

Across Timeless’s 17 tracks, Davido responds with an elder’s acceptance, prioritising soothing self-preservation over blinding euphoria and returning with songs that are as measured as they are assured of his success over whatever forces might arise against him.

The opening song, “OVER DEM,” takes a reference from the biblical story of David and Goliath to make a point about his inevitable rise, hinting at an introspective turn from Afropop’s premier party-starter.

Other songs like “GODFATHER”, “AWAY” and “LCND” offer a glimpse into the singer’s id as he dissects pain, seeks healing and comes to terms with his titanic profile.

However, Timeless is not only about drawing strength to go on; there are more of the romantic slappers that Davido has made a stock-in-trade (“NO COMPETITION” and “FOR THE ROAD”) as well a bouncy hip-hop-influenced collab with grime don Skepta (“U [JUJU]”) before things round up with the fiery “Champion Sound”.

Overall, Timeless is an instructive look into the life of a phenom who has dealt with the darkest of times and come out raring to go again.

See TIMELESS track list below;

Over Dem
Feel
In The Garden
Godfather
Unavailable
BOP
E Pain Me
Away
Precision
Kante
Na Money
U (JUJU)
No Competition
Picasso
For The Road
LCND
Champion Sound