New month. New music.

Sampha, Process

It’s only February, but we’re looking at the album of the year already here. Sampha’s debut LP has been a myth since his features on SBTRKT and Jessie Ware records way back in 2011. His first solo single, 'Too Much', was sampled by Drake for his track of the same name, and even more recently, he provided the final lines on Kanye’s 'The Life of Pablo' and dropped in on Frank Ocean’s 'Blond'. After releasing three singles, the South London singer, songwriter, producer and all round crazy talented guy, has finally put his own work first and released ‘Process’. After losing his mother to cancer, Sampha provides 10 incredibly revealing and emotive lullabies through which he tackles overwhelming loss and the inner-conflicts surrounding his success and staying true to himself. The most recent single, ‘No One Knows Me (Like The Piano in My Mother’s Home),’ is the saddest and most impassioned on the record, a stripped-down tribute to his late mother, however, the album itself flows effortlessly between sounds in Sampha’s genre-less brilliance. ‘Incomplete Kisses’ provides soulful R&B, ‘Under’, downbeat, drum-heavy electro-pop, and ‘Kora Sings,’ some funky offbeat medieval flute vibes. Sampha must be used to working on ground-breaking projects by now, but that hasn’t prevented him from creating an innovative personal project with a subtle magnificence only he could forge.

Stormzy, Big For Your Boots

After nine months of silence, Stormzy’s back with a new single and the announcement of his debut album, ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’, to be released on February 24th. With Sir Spyro on production, Stormzy’s ominous vocals drop in a familiarly aggressive flow. Last year he said the album is going to portray him as an, ‘aggy little shit with a bone to pick,’ and he wasn’t wrong with a hook like, ‘You’re getting way too big for your boots. You’re never too big for the boot.’ After a sudden rise to fame in 2015, a new album’s going to make it pop all over again for Stormzy, and if this is anything, we’re in for a treat.

Elbow, Little Fictions

It’s been three years since everyone’s mums favourite band released new music, but a return is here, in the form of new album ‘Little Fictions’. After seeing the artwork for the record, you wouldn’t be at fault for thinking the Bury fourpiece may have downed their acoustic guitars and replaced them with synths. However now such transformation has occurred, Elbow are still their grandiose art-rock selves, but after all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It seems lead singer, Guy Garvey’s 2015 solo effort, ‘Courting the Squall’ helped him release his inner and outer conflicts and so this album becomes less anthemic, but more joyous and quietly melodic than ever. You won’t find another ‘One Day Like This’ here, but if you look for it, you’ll find 13 tracks that lurch calmly between inspirations of previous records, ‘K2’ presents a similar electronic progression as 2012’s ‘Cast Of Thousands’ whereas opener ‘Magnificent (She Says),’ shares euphoric similarities with ‘build a rocket boys!’ and ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’. If you didn’t like Elbow already, then this isn’t going to be the album that turns you, but if you did, then enjoy, because they’re at their best here.

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