First-rate songwriting, hypnotic beats and empathetic emotions on north Londoner’s fourth.

By Tom Doyle.

Do you know Michael Kiwanuka? MK’s latest makes emotional connections.

Michael Kiwanuka

★★★★

Small Changes

POLYDOR. CD/DL/LP

TWICE DURING his spellbinding set on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury this summer Michael Kiwanuka attempted to perform the intro to Solid Ground, the penultimate track on his last album Kiwanuka, before his malfunctioning synth forced him to abandon the song. “This is like my worst nightmare,” he sheepishly grinned, before quickly recomposing himself and seamlessly carrying on. But it was a glimpse of the diffident, anxious man – a self-confessed “overthinker” – so often apparent in his songs.

Five years have passed since that Mercury-winning third album and this long-gestated successor reflects the hopes and fears of a 37-year-old father of two now living on the English south coast having quit his native

London. If the singer has always been confessional, even when he’s gently fretting, it now comes with life experience and some sagacity. Made once again with the production team of Danger Mouse and Inflo, Kiwanuka says the latter in particular helps to top up his self-confidence and stop him second-guessing himself.

“We can be solid but barely make a dent,” he offers in slow-burning opener Floating Parade, with its Melody Nelson bass line, wafting strings, and oblique narrative involving a desire to lose himself in the crowd and kill his anxiety. “I chased the waterfalls/I was the leaving kind,” he sings elsewhere, with a hint of Fred Neil-styled escapism, in One And Only, a song that’s ultimately about resolving to be a better partner.