My initial impression of Michael Kiwanuka was that he's a wonderfully retro folk soul artist in the vein of Terry Callier. That was certainly good enough for me as I'm not a fan of modern R&B or electronica, but with the help of producers Danger Mouse and Inflo, he evolved into a ubiquitous ultra-modern hipster retro soul pop star - I swear it seems as if every Netflix producer is under contractual obligation to use one of his songs as background to his most heartrending scene - in short he's as massive as one can get without losing his
coolness credentials. By rights I should be crying
sellout but damn it he's too good for that. I mean, there's already been a Terry Callier, a Marvin Gaye etc. Good as their were, we don't need another. Thankfully the modernizing touches do not distract from the core of the music, which is Kiwanuka's songwriting and, especially, his emotive singing. Danger Mouse's production reminds me of his collaboration with Daniele Luppi
Rome: subtle electronic beats and samples, sweeping strings and atmospheric backing vocals with touches of Morricone and Burt Bacharach. Opener "
You Ain't the Problem" starts off with some nice African style percussion and upbeat rhythm to go with the affirmatory message of the lyrics. Africa is present in the album, from subtle music influences to the "Black Power" messages in lyrics to the album cover presenting Kinawuka as some kind of African prince. Not forgetting of course the singer's Ugandan heritage with which he seems to be very much in touch with. "Rolling" is a modern R&B/electronica piece reminiscent of Danger Mouse's
Gnarls Barkley project. It's one of the few songs where the producer seems to get the upper hand. "I've Been Dazed" is a beautiful slow tune. The gospel choir gives me a sense of
deja vu with Moby's use of blues samples on the megaselling
Play CD some 20 years ago. But I'm not supposed to say that, since Moby made the mistake of becoming too massive to be cool as well as of being white. Apparently a white artist using century-old blues is "misappropriating" it, while black artists' skin color gives them legitimate ownership over this music. The intro to "Piano Joint" features some Barry White-ish vocals that don't do it for me, but the main song is an excellent piano-and-strings-led ballad. "
Another Human Being" is a piano and spoken word bridge to "
Living in Denial" combining warm vocals with a big cinematic Bacharach-style production. "Hero" consists of an acoustic guitar intro and a jazz-funk main song reminiscent of the more orchestrated Gil Scot-Heron songs. The poignant subject matter refers to a young Black Panther member shot dead by police in the 60's, drawing a direct line to recent police shootings and the
"Black Lives Matter" movement. "Hard to Say Goodbye" and "Solid Ground" are two more atmospheric the-blues-meet-Portishead tunes, while "Final Days" speeds those trip-hop beats slightly, covering everything with Morriconesque strings and ethereal backing vocals. "Interlude" is another bridge - these short pieces help with the album flow, which is something less and less attention is given to since physical sales gave way to streaming services. The long and cinematic "Light" closes the album with a note of sweet surrender and lightness "Shine your light over me (shine on me)/All of my fears are gone, baby, gone, gone/(And it don't bother me) It don't bother me, don't bother me, now/ If it's not meant to be". All in all one of last year's more interesting albums. It
could gain an extra star by shortening the duration to an ideal 42-45 minutes for a single LP.
Not that 52 minutes don't easily fit into a single vinyl. I have many old LP's that exceed 50 minutes without any discernible loss in quality. Some (mostly from the early 90's) even run for 60 or more minutes, e.g. Neil Young's Ragged Glory and Unplugged, Pink Floyd's Division Bell, The Cure's Disintegration, etc. These are a bit too quiet, i.e. you need to turn the volume dial way up to listen to them correctly. They've all been recenlty re-released as double albums. For some reason, though, it's not only 60+min. LP's that get re-released as double ones. They do the same with 45-50 minute LP's, which is simply ri-di-cu-lous! Even more so because any quality upgrade would be so small as to go unnoticed by most people, given that they listen to their vinyls on cheap turntables with rudimentary speakers and amplifiers - if they ever listen to them. I'd bet that most people are bored of changing sides every 12 minutes and end up streaming them anyway. Plus these LP's were carefully structured with a certain running order, each side a 20-25-minute trip intended to be listened to in one sitting. Splitting them into more vinyls destroys the balance between the sides and messes with the way you are supposed to listen to the album. Sound quality my ass! It's all a scheme to sell you a "luxe" product (thick double 180 gram vinyl, perceived "higher" sound quality, gatefold cover etc) for an inflated price. Another explanation I've read in specialist forums is that cutting a long LP without loss of quality requires a level of skill which new cutting engineers simply lack. I tend to believe there's some truth in that, as I've often heard brand new deluxe 180-gram vinyl with inferior sound quality to thinner and cheaper old records.
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