Past Blast Musique: Mýa’s “Circle of Life” Is Pure Summer-Night House Music
One of the worst things you can say around INYIM is “there’s no good music today.” There is always good music. Sometimes it just gets buried underneath whatever the algorithm decided everybody should hear that week.
Case in point: Mýa’s criminally overlooked “Circle of Life (Ol’ Skoo’ Joint).”
The track comes from her 2016 independent album Smoove Jones, released through her own Planet 9 imprint. It is tucked all the way down at track 10, which may explain why casual listeners never stumbled onto it — but once you do, good luck not putting it into permanent warm-weather rotation.
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The Smoove Jones Afterglow
Mýa built this independent R&B record around feel-good grooves from the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s — and “Circle of Life” is one of its sweetest hidden corners.
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This Is Sunday Dancing on a Summer Night Music
This is Sunday dancing on a summer night jam. Sweet, happy and — to borrow Mýa’s own spelling — very “smoove.” The groove feels like somebody cracked open a window at 10 p.m., turned the speakers toward the backyard and decided nobody needed to go home yet.
There is nothing tortured about it. “Circle of Life” is a soulful house jam at heart — and one of those classics that somehow never became a classic. Warm, breezy and built for moving, it has all the ingredients of a song that should have lived far beyond its album-cut status. It is the sound of letting go, losing track of time and allowing the groove to temporarily erase whatever nonsense the week handed you. Mýa brings the soul, but the pulse belongs on a dancefloor — preferably on a hot summer night with nowhere to be the next morning.
That was very much the idea behind Smoove Jones. Mýa later described the album as her own imaginary radio station, drawing from ’70s, ’80s and ’90s R&B while keeping enough contemporary production around it to stop the project from sounding preserved in amber.
Smoove Jones Was an Independent Win for Mýa
The album arrived in February 2016 through Planet 9, Mýa’s independent label, with Mýa serving as executive producer and maintaining the kind of hands-on control that had increasingly defined the second half of her career.
And the industry eventually noticed. Smoove Jones earned Mýa a 2017 Grammy nomination for Best R&B Album — a particularly satisfying achievement for a veteran artist who had stepped outside the traditional major-label machine and kept building anyway.
“Circle of Life” is exactly the kind of album cut that explains why the nomination made sense. It is not screaming for attention. It just knows exactly what mood it wants to create and stays there.
Sadly, there does not appear to be a proper music video or live performance for the song that we could find. “Circle of Life” and Mýa deserve more. But perhaps that is also why it makes such a good Past Blast Musique pick: this is one you actually have to dig for.
And BTW, her later album work has remained mighty tasty too. We previously featured Mýa’s new delectable retro “Give It to You” with D-Nice right here on INYIM. Revisit that one here.
Stream Mýa’s Full Smoove Jones Album on Spotify
If “Circle of Life” catches you, do not stop at track 10. The full 12-track Smoove Jones album is available on Spotify, including “Welcome to My World,” “Coolin’,” “One Man Woman (Ol’ Skoo’ Joint)” and the wonderfully named “Smoove Jones Afta Glow Show.”
Listen to the full Smoove Jones album on Spotify →
Listen to Mýa’s “Circle of Life (Ol’ Skoo’ Joint)”
The official audio comes from Mýa’s 2016 Smoove Jones album, released independently through Planet 9.
Sources: Mýa Official; Recording Academy; Spotify; Mýa / YouTube.
