Searching for Michael Kiwanuka in the Amazon store, the first sponsored suggestion that comes up is What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye.
It’s an intimidating but entirely appropriate comparison. The Muswell Hill musician’s third album opens with a similar snatch of crowd chatter embedded in the music and goes on to reference the Sixties Civil Rights movement in song. In any case, since Cold Little Heart, the extraordinary 10-minute opener to his second long-player Love & Hate (the theme tune to Big Little Lies) he’s been displaying the ambition and ability to touch the giants of socially conscious soul.
When the 32-year-old started out as a singer-songwriter with an acoustic guitar, he was, as he put it in a 2016 single, a Black Man in a White World.
Here, with that new album title, he fully embraces his Ugandan heritage and the surname that record company people used to advise him to change. Atlanta painter Markeidric Walker has depicted him as an African prince on the cover. The music, made with his past collaborators Danger Mouse and Inflo, is retro without ever sinking to pastiche. Fuzzy, wild electric guitar is dominant, with a free-flowing psychedelic feel to songs such as Hero and Rolling. Hard to Say Goodbye, over seven minutes, covers ground from weepy strings to massed backing vocals like a vintage film soundtrack.
It’s collectively more raw and raucous than its predecessor, just as impressive, and very special indeed.
