It’s been a while since Maya Amolo told us to leave her at the pregame and between then and now she has released three other full length projects (or four, depending on how you think about Asali: Sweeter) that has chronicled her metamorphosis into one of Kenya’s most well rounded artists and nowhere is this more evident than on her 2025 album ‘Sweetest Time’.
With the arrival of Sweetest Time, Maya Amolo invites and immerses us into her world. This album feels more personal and captivating than her previous release, Asali, which was presented to us only a few years prior, with an updated look and feel to go along with it. When Maya Amolo released “Sweetest Time” the single, it would have been easy to assume the stylistic and tonal direction of the album would be the same as her previous releases. But it clicked that this would be a different type of vibe with the release of “Guidance” and “Look The Other Way”. We were going to get a more open ended album from Maya. And even though none of the previous EPs and albums she released put her out of her comfort zone, it felt like a natural progression. It made sense, in fact, it’s kind of wild that it took this long for Maya to do the damn thing.
It’s crystal clear that her music is very personal to her because of the details she incorporates into every track. Sweetest Time is 12 tracks long that split thematically from what Maya Amolo usually presents to her fans. At her listening party, she mentioned that she wanted to explore beyond the usual driving force of romance on this album and this can be seen on multiple tracks here. There’s the soft but lethal “Look The Other Way”, a diss track to her haters in the mould of Mariah Carey’s ‘Obsessed’ and the bouncy “Hollon” which just makes you want to dance. Sweetest Time expands on the lo-fi R&B sound that has become Maya Amolo’s calling card, infusing Afro-pop flavours and dance music which allows the artist to tap into a more sonically advanced palette that gives her honeyed vocals more room to shine. Some of this shift can be attributed to Cap, the album producer who reigns as Nairobi’s ‘pop whisperer’. The production melds the old and the new, allowing Maya to push herself even further vocally and contextually.
While the album features the artist colouring outside the lines, it still maintains the soft glamour and luxurious romance that has become Maya Amolo’s defining aesthetic. The R&B artist still has love and longing as her core motivations in her music but not with the weepy desperation of her contemporaries; for Maya, it comes with a more subtle and self-assured approach. This is “I’m here if you need me” and not “Please love me or I will perish” music. On “Guidance” she sings “Catch me waiting by the door in the evening/only face that I wanna be seeing, please”, a declaration of love and dedication that comes out in such a sultry manner, it evokes all types of emotion in the listener. The run of tracks from “I Like It” to “Truth Be Told” follows the formula set out by her previous records, bringing them forth in the heart of what is a more experimental record, while reminding the listener that even though she is baring her fangs on this album, she is still a lover girl at heart.
This album places Maya as one of Kenyan R&B’s realest artists, as well as one of its most underrated storytellers . Her earliest songs began with a poetic lustre, and she has grown to a point where the vivid imagery on Sweetest Time create almost picture perfect visualizations of mundane events such as waiting on the phone for your lover to call you, the disdain of having people talking about you behind your back and the pure magic of existence. For less accomplished lyricists, the building blocks on Sweetest Time would be the tentpole of their lyricism but for Maya Amolo they serve as scenery which surrounds the centerpiece of her music.
The careful observations in her lyrics endow Maya’s storytelling with a particular weight. Her approach to writing gains its effectiveness by how simply it defines her character. At no point in the album are we confused about the message that she is trying to pass across, at each point she is determined to own the narrative and makes sure that the listener understands every single thing she says. Maya commits to the performance of simplicity with flair and bravado. On “Look The Other Way” the production might fool you into thinking that this is a ballad but the lyrics quickly establish the bite and snarl of the song, a declaration of war on her haters “Pussy never say it to my face/Look the other way” she sings, with her voice shining all across the production. All along the album, the beauty of the writing shines in how simple yet effective it is, foregoing grandiose hyperbole for a more direct and effective approach. By keeping it real and keeping it grounded, Maya is able to connect with her audience on a deeper, more personal level.
Across the whole album, Maya’s voice and writing fills each moment with incredible tone and delivery. It feels approachable more in its emotionality and simplicity than even in the sound itself, which on its own already pushes further beyond the boundaries compared to her previous work. Maya’s approach to romance and longing feels like a proper connection, mostly because it is covered in honesty and digs so deep to the core. It is a fabulous, beautiful, joyous, sultry, and insanely-approachable album that delivers above and beyond its expectations, a record conceived from the mind of one of the best Kenyan artists around. It’s a triumphant rising to greet a whole new era of Kenyan R&B, and what a pleasure it is to be here to meet it.
