Kiwanuka
| Michael Kiwanuka
1573951165.jpg)
Kiwanuka
Kiwanuka is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka. It was released on 1 November 2019 through Polydor and Interscope Records.-"Wikipedia"
Critic Reviews
Show All-
Belwood Music
It ticks all the right boxes and yet somehow still feels like it is just going through the motions. There’s just a spark missing. Its a very pretty record by every measure, but not an interesting one.
-
Spectrum Culture
What it lacks in immediacy, Kiwanuka more than makes up for in sheer declarative artistry.
-
Albumism
Gifted with a voice that oozes feeling, Michael Kiwanuka also has an artistic voice that has hit something perilously close to perfect here—if this doesn’t prove to be a gateway to bigger audiences for his incredible artistic endeavor then the blame will lie fairly and squarely at the feet of anyone but him. This is both urgent and immediate for the moment, but timelessly classic at the same time—it is triumphant.
-
The Arts Desk
Featuring harps and children’s choirs, Kiwanuka could have gone off the rails, but it has the songs and the focused intent to convince. it’s a set that’s as catchy as it is vital.
-
Gig Wise
Throughout Kiwanuka, Michael asks big questions of both himself and the listener, finally offering some sense of peace and closure by the end. A work of stunning range and depth, it is by far Michael Kiwanuka’s finest work to date. Blending a range of influences, sounds and themes to ensure a creative and compelling end result, this is one of the very finest recent R&B records, blending the personal, political, and pure to dazzling effect.
-
Exclaim
Kiwanuka is therapeutic for all parties involved. It's honest, psychedelic, enlightening and recalls blackness defined by acoustic folk and the organic soul of past artists like Gil Scott-Heron, Bobby Womack and Otis Redding.
-
Brooklyn Vegan
Michael Kiwanuka’s ‘Kiwanuka’ is a masterclass in modern psychedelic soul
-
Treble Zine
Kiwanuka frankly has too many instrumental-heavy spaces, padding things out with scratchy ambience and long interludes and fades. The harp-and-piano joints and studio tricks seem to be here solely because they can be, rather than fitting into any cohesive throwback-jam vision.
-
Pop Matters
Indeed, Kiwanuka could very well be one of the best albums of 2019. But Kiwanuka is also a beautiful, deep place that feels like it will be worth visiting, not just in the last month of this year, but throughout a listener's lifetime.
-
All Music
Kiwanuka stands head and shoulders above it as a complex, communicative, poetic, and sometimes even profound collection that wears its heart on its sleeve and its sophistication in its grooves.
-
The Current
On Kiwanuka's self-titled album, he embraces all his influences from Curtis Mayfield to Joni Mitchell, all while cementing his identity as a powerful voice capable of crafting songs that confront personal narratives and the human condition.
-
Go London
It’s collectively more raw and raucous than its predecessor, just as impressive, and very special indeed.
-
The Young Folks
Kiwanuka has many pleasures to offer, albeit some you have to work a little bit harder for. The album even manages to feel shorter than it is, as Kiwanuka efficiently communicates a complex emotional arc with ease and assurance, reflecting the statement of fact and headlong gaze present on Kiwanuka’s cover.
-
Stereo Board
Kiwanuka is seemingly offering up some final resistance to his determination, made harrowingly tangible by his referring to the cover of night being a safe place where he can hide. The brilliant track’s organ and piano mix, meanwhile, recall the pop grandeur of Talk Talk.
-
Clash
It’s a track that feels very pure in its production - the focus on Kiwanuka’s vocals, and the unexpected introduction of a harp. Despite some romantic moments, he doesn’t doesn’t shy away from the tough stuff.
-
The Line of Best Fit
Everything here feels like it exists as one unified, harmonious body, like the very current of Kiwanuka’s identity has come alive, flowing like a river containing multitudes; at times it babbles, at others it gushes, it’s choppy and serene, and it washes over you with a warm sense of purpose. Finding your identity and coming to grips with who you are, and not just accepting it but championing it, is what Kiwanuka embodies.
-
Rolling Stone
At his best, Kiwanuka foregrounds the dizzying breadth of his influences, refusing, at all costs, to play for cheap soul thrills.
-
AP
The songs usually flow into each other, simultaneously linked and separated by electronics, spoken-word fragments, vocal quilts and other assorted buffers, providing a sense of unity that also serves as a recommendation for listening to each song as part of a whole.
-
Independent
The singer’s new record is an introspective mix of psychey soul, blues, rock and funk, which skips and strolls and swaggers through its 13 tracks
-
The Philadelphia Inquirer
With his third album, Ugandan-British songwriter Michael Kiwanuka has once again woven together a seamless song cycle that takes its sweet time in expressing hopes, fears, and doubts.
-
Pitchfork
The London singer-songwriter's Danger Mouse and Inflo-produced latest feels like an easy listen at first, but eventually reveals its mournful and even despairing heart.
-
The Guardian
Kiwanuka is a bold, expansive, heartfelt, sublime album. He’s snuck in at the final whistle, but surely this is among the decade’s best.
-
Paste
KIWANUKA is a breathtaking retro-futuristic hybrid of funk, soul, rock and folk that somehow exists in all of the past 50 years at once. It’s a tumultuous record, at once confessional and restive, and shot through with a quiet anguish. KIWANUKA is steeped in heartache, but its namesake isn’t mourning for himself—at least, not solely.
-
NME
This album becomes even more emotive when you think that Kiwanuka was on the verge of giving up five years ago. It’s the sound of an artist examining the politics of prejudice that have led him to self-doubt and out of it again. It’s also the sound of an artist coming into his own through brave and dizzying experimentation.
-
Music OMH
It’s an album that skilfully mixes the personal and the political. Hero is both defiant and introspective. KIWANUKA doesn’t waste a single one of its 51 minutes, and seems destined to receive the same sort of acclaim as its predecessor. Now that he’s set the self-doubt aside, the sky would seem to be the limit for Michael Kiwanuka.
Rate This Album and Leave Your Comments