The Mercury prize-winning London rapper and actress Simbiatu Ajikawo brings a powerful, playful as well as personal issues, defiant rage-filled articulate new sixth album, broadening her musical scope with collaborator and producer Miles James with a title inspired by the flower that blooms, despite a harsh environment in mud and swamp. It’s her first without longtime collaborator Inflo, but there’s an impressive mix of guests here, including Cashh, Yussef Dayes, Lydia Kitto, Michael Kiwanuka, Miraa May, Yukimi Nagano, Obongjayar, Sampha, Moonchild Sanelly, Moses Sumney, and Wretch 32. Opener Thief has a stylish guitar twang that could come from crime thriller with gradually building dynamic percussion, and Sims’ ire is sharp and direct: “That’s what abusers do / Make you think you’re crazy and second-guess your every move.” She’s remarked how her rapping was written over guitars more than beats on this album, and the variety of stylistic rhythm ebb and flow. Flood is a dark, rumbling track with an almost whispered menace, with Moonchild Sanelly and Obongjayar, the latter having a particular presence here, as well as on another standout, Lion, a funk and highlife, song with a family reference the pride of her mother, someone she describes as small and sweet, but fiercely protective of her pride. It also includes a big shout out to one of heroines - Lauren Hill. A expansion of styles also comes on the more talky comedy number hip-hop Young, in which Sims plays a feisty, mischievous, cantankerous character who could come from the Lily Allen school of songwriting, and comes with a fabulously oddball video in which Sims plays an old lady with bags of attitude. Jungle’s Lydia Kitto joins her on the soulful Free, and there’s another 70s summery flavour of that genre on the strong title track, joined by peerless soul star Michael Kiwanuka, as well as jazz drummer Yussef Dayes. Enough, with Yukimi, has a fabulously quirky Prince-crossed-with-new-wave-postpunk beat and twinkling instrumentation, in which she pulls no punches and declares “I am an electric black girl”. Blood jumps out uncomfortably within all this musical flow is a particularly fractious family argument, but the album closes with Blue, a mellower, and more positive song involving the soft vocals tones of Sampha, who sings the chorus: “There's a light at the end, carry on /You and I found the break to be strong.” Packed with sizzling phrases delivered with real panache and bite, changes of pace and intricate rhythms and many new styles, this is her best since 2021’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, and the range, maturity and emotions addressed and expressed sometimes even surpasses it. Out on AWAL Recordings.
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