When Moonchild Sanelly released her second studio album Phases in 2022, there was a major emphasis on the project’s collaborative ethos. With guest features from the likes of Sad Night Dynamite, Trillary Banks, Ghetts, Blxckie and Sir Trill, it was an opportunity for the South African musician to showcase the varied elements of her sound and highlight the multifaceted nature of her artistry. Her style, which she describes as “future-ghetto-funk”, has set her apart since her debut but with her third studio album Full Moon, Sanelly doubles-down on her unique musicality, presenting – as the title indicates – twelve tracks that epitomise unity and the sum of her musical parts.
The album opens with the playful and dub-heavy ‘Scrambled Eggs’, which provided the first taste of the new record when it was released back in May. It establishes the overall free-spirited and vivacious feel of the rest of Full Moon, the comedy of the lyrics perfectly matching Sanelly’s tongue-in-cheek tone. This leads flawlessly into the self-celebratory ‘Big Booty’, a track all about embracing your body, with the tongue-twisting chorus of “Big, big booty bop, bitty bop, bitty bop bah” making it an instant and undeniable earworm.
Lyrically, Sanelly has a knack for storytelling that merges humour and candor with sexual innuendos, wordplay and bold messaging. ‘To Kill a Single Girl (Tequila)’, for example, is a break-up song metaphorically soaked in spirit, while ‘Do My Dance’ is a rebellious dancefloor-ready anthem that embraces a feminist vision of freedom and living on your own terms. It’s not all high-tempo euphoria though; on Full Moon, Sanelly flexes her range by contributing some tender moments, as on the piano-led ‘Falling’ which recounts an emotional history. It places her voice at the forefront, which we see again on the sensual spoken-word of ‘I Love People’. Elsewhere, ‘Mntanami’, which translates to ‘my child’, is the album’s definitive Xhosa ballad, its gentle melody and melancholic core rendering what Sanelly calls “an apology from useless parents”. Like the album’s contemplative finale ‘I Was the Biggest Curse’, it’s an insight into Sanelly’s own path towards self-acceptance and self-love.
From fierce breakbeats and pounding basslines to Afro-punk energy and more than a few memorable lines, Full Moon is a distinctive and exuberant snapshot of an exceptional journey. It offers yet more proof that Moonchild Sanelly is a singular artist whose colourful aesthetic is not only discernible via her trademark blue mop of braids but in the joyous, sexy and defiant nature of her sound.
