Weekly Music Roundup: The Weeknd, Michael Kiwanuka, and Porridge Radio

This week, returns for The Weeknd and Michael Kiwanuka; also, Porridge Radio and Ebo Taylor

Michael Kiwanuka Returns With Two-Part Single

British-Ugandan singer and songwriter Michael Kiwanuka has finally announced his first new album since the Mercury-Prize-winning Kiwanuka, five years ago. That’s not really a surprise – he’d released a single earlier this summer, but today, he put out a two-part track from the record called “Lowdown (Parts I and II).” The first part features Kiwanuka’s becalmed voice over a gently chugging indie rock beat, with touches of organ and backing vocals that give it a vintage soul feel. Part II is essentially a guitar solo over a harmonically wandering string arrangement that reminds me of Pink Floyd circa Wish You Were Here. Both parts display the traits that have made Kiwanuka a quiet star: a sense of intimate storytelling and a sound that is expansive without ever becoming grandiose.  In that sense, the unexpected but understated video is a perfect fit. 

Kiwanuka’s new album, Small Changes, will come out on November 15. He plays in NY at Summer Stage in Central Park on October 3. 

The Weeknd Releases A Surefire New Single

The Weeknd (Abel Tesfaye) released his new single, “Dancing In The Flames,” early this morning. It’ll probably top the charts next week, because The Weeknd’s blend of synth-pop, dance music, and goth imagery continues to hit a collective nerve. “Dancing In The Flames” is full of love-in-time-of-darkness imagery, and the video, shot on an iPhone, is vintage The Weeknd in its weirdly apocalyptic feel. Stormy sounds are mixed into the actual song as The Weeknd stumbles away from a car crash, singing about dancing in the flames while walking in the pouring rain.    

Sifting Through The Wreckage With Porridge Radio

Porridge Radio is a rock band from Brighton, UK, led by singer and guitarist Dana Margolin. Her earliest songs were full of imagery of the sea and the seaside town where the band resides, but the band’s last album was deeper, full of emotional yet elusive songs. Now they’re preparing to release a new album, called Clouds In The Sky They Will Always Be There For Me, and the new single, “A Hole In the Ground,” is a slowburning tale of a breakup. Or maybe it is, as Margolin writes, “a haunted fairytale, a horrible nightmare.” Built around her distinctively reedy and eventually heaving vocals, it uses increasingly agitated guitars to build up to a shattering climax. The song’s official video is of a live performance, and the full album comes out on October 18. 

Ghanaian Legend Ebo Taylor Collaborates With Jazz Is Dead

In January, Ebo Taylor turns 89. His music career began back in the 60s, as a guitarist and bandleader, and alongside his famous Nigerian friend Fela Kuti (the two studied together in London), Taylor helped define the sounds of West African pop in the 70s and 80s. Now, he’s about to release an album with Jazz Is Dead, the concert series and record imprint founded by composer Adrian Younge and percussionist Ali Shaheed Muhammad (from A Tribe Called Quest). “Obra Akyedzi,” or “gift of life,” is the first single, and it’s a delicious concoction of West African pop, Blaxploitation-style film music, and funk, in both its American and Nigerian forms. 

The full album, Jazz Is Dead #22, is out on October 25.  

Nilufer Yanya, Method Actor

British singer and guitarist Nilufer Yanya seemed to burst fully-formed onto the music scene with her smart, catchy brand of indie rock in 2018. Her 2019 debut LP, Miss Universe, and the followup, Painless (2022), were both well-received. But her new record, Method Actor, might be her most focused and effective one yet. Her basic musical language is still indie pop/rock, but there are notes of R&B, electronic music, and psychedelia, all tellingly deployed. With Yanya nearing 30, songs such as “Like I Say (I Runaway)” consider the feeling of time flying past, and explode into grunge-y guitar hooks in the chorus.