Artist: Michael Kiwanuka
Album: Love & Hate
Bitrate: 236kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Polydor
Genre: Soul
Size: 98.82 megs
PlayTime: 0h 55min 04sec total
Rip Date: 2016-07-29
Store Date: 2016-07-15
Track List:
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01. Cold Little Heart 10:10
02. Black Man In A White World 4:19
03. Falling 4:16
04. Place I Belong 4:47
05. Love And Hate 7:07
06. One More Night 3:53
07. I'll Never Love 2:46
08. Rule The World 5:42
09. Father's Child 7:05
10. The Final Frame 4:59
Release Notes:
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Michael Kiwanuka could easily be your common-or-garden young soul man, all
furrowed of brow, bittersweet of piano chord and gravelly of croon. Pots of gold
await that kind of approach, thanks to a record-buying public still heavily
invested in the soul revival. Mercury-nominated for Home Again, his graciously
turned soul-folk debut of 2012, Kiwanuka has been awol for four years, crafting
his second album alongside producers such as Home AgainÆs Paul Butler, Londoner
Inflo and celeb import Danger Mouse, watching poseurs such as James Bay get
famous.
ThereÆs a good amount of bittersweet furrow ÆnÆ croon on the 29-year-oldÆs
second album, Love & Hatecorrect (the title presumably taken from Leonard
CohenÆs Songs of Love and Hate): 10 tracks in which relationships fail to work
out in storybook fashion; Kiwanuka contemplates whether or not he is his
fatherÆs child; and current events in the big, bad world press in
antagonistically.
A key track, Black Man in a White World, for instance, starts out as just
handclaps and vocals, rootsy to the point of cliche. But give it a minute and
the swelling song spells out the saudade of racism in a way that even those
unwittingly basking in white privilege can understand: ôIÆm in love but IÆm
still sad/ IÆve found peace but IÆm not glad,ö Kiwanuka sings. Granted, itÆs not
quite the goosebump-inducing, Marvin Gaye epic. But the ecstatic music swirling
around Kiwanuka gives his weary message broad wings.
The looser-limbed One More Night, by contrast, has something of the roll of the
Black Keys (Danger Mouse clients) to it, stitched together with crisp details
where the combination of parping organ and bright horns could be so much more
textbook.
You do feel a stronger shiver when KiwanukaÆs thoughts turn inwards. The album
opens on Cold Little Heart, a five-minute meditation on his own organÆs
failings, prefaced by a slightly unconventional, five-minute overture in which
orchestral soul trades off with Pink Floyd guitar. All told, itÆs a touch too
grandiose, but littered with gems of hard-won self-knowledge. ôMaybe this time I
can be strong,ö Kiwanuka sings, ôBut since you know who I am / IÆm probably
wrong.ö
The same unflattering self-portrait resurfaces on songs such as the exceptional
Falling. KiwanukaÆs delivery is a combination of delicacy and exhaustion,
telling of an on-off relationship drained of all hope. ôIÆm a man that belongs
alone,ö Kiwanuka tells us. His eloquent orchestra is cut off at least a minute
too soon. Four songs along, on IÆll Never Love, Kiwanuka is still sounding
bereft, while his music is generous, a country-soul track full of succour.
The Final Frame ends things with Kiwanuka singing tenderly about the end of a
relationship, one framed by ôthe times IÆm living throughö. A squally electric
guitar solo lets you know Love & Hate isnÆt just another slice of vintage soul,
but something a little more intriguing than that.