Michael Kiwanuka has announced a new album,Kiwanuka, to be released October 25th, and shared its lead single, You Aint the Problem.
You Aint the Problem boasts a delightfully boisterous mix of drums and horns, which anchor twisting guitars and array of vocal loops. Over this busy, uptempo groove, Kiwanuka delivers a simple yet compelling vocal performance, with lyrics like, I lived a live/Love is the crime/Its you I believe in/No Need to play myself/No need to die/Im only human.
Kiwanuka produced the new album with Danger Mouse and Inflo, the same team behind his 2016 album Love & Hate. The record, which is available to pre-order, also arrives after a period of increased exposure for the English musician, whose 2016 song Cold Little Heart notably served as the theme song for HBOs mega-hit Big Little Lies.
The last album came from an introspective place and felt like therapy, I guess, Kiwanuka said in a statement. This one is more about feeling comfortable in who I am and asking what I want to say. Like, how could I be bold and challenge myself and the listener? It is about self-acceptance in a more triumphant rather than melancholy way. Its an album that explores what it means to be a human being today.
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He continued, When I first signed a record deal, people would ask me, So what are you going to be called? And I never thought of that; calling myself Johnny Thunders or whatever, like singers from the past. So, on this album its kind of a defiant thing; Im engaging with who I am and Im not going to have an alter ego, or become Sasha Fierce or Ziggy Stardust, even though everyones telling me I need to be this, that or the other. I can just be Michael Kiwanuka.
Kiwanuka has a handful of North American tour dates scheduled for this fall, including a September 25th show at Brooklyn Steel in New York City, followed by three shows in California with Gary Clark, Jr., September 27th through the 29th.
KiwanukaTrack List
1. You Aint The Problem
2. Rolling
3. Ive Been Dazed
4. Piano Joint (This Kind Of Love) Intro
5. Piano Joint (This Kind Of Love)
6. Another Human Being
7. Living in Denial
8. Hero (Intro
9. Hero
10. Hard To Say Goodbye
11. Final Days
12. Interlude (Loving The People)
13. Solid Ground
14. Light