Michael Kiwanuka Details His Third Album ‘KIWANUKA’
UK soul singer Michael Kiwanuka announces his third album, ‘KIWANUKA’, set for release on 25 October and featuring the new single, ‘You Ain’t The Problem’.
UK soul singer Michael Kiwanuka announces his third album, KIWANUKA, set for release on 25 October and featuring the new single, ‘You Ain’t The Problem’.
The highly-anticipated follow-up to his chart-topping and Mercury-nominated Love & Hate has been three years in the making and sees Kiwanuka reuniting with the production duo Danger Mouse and Inflo.
Recorded in New York, LA and London, KIWANUKA reflects his “ear for musical adventure,” as the official release states.
Given the amount of critical and commercial praise that showered his last record, the last two years have found the singer-songwriter questioning his own ability and musical identity. How do you follow a record that achieved everything you have ever wanted to achieve?
Imposter syndrome aside, KIWANUKA brims with confidence and channels an assortment of the late greats, with nods to Gil Scott-Heron, Bobby Womack and Otis Redding, moving further away from the folk-imbued vintage soul of his debut album, Home Again, back in 2012.
“The last album came from an introspective place and felt like therapy, I guess,” explains Kiwanuka in an official 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. It’s an album that explores what it means to be a human being today.”
“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 it’s kind of a defiant thing; I’m engaging with who I am and I’m not going to have an alter ego, or become Sasha Fierce or Ziggy Stardust, even though everyone’s telling me I need to be this, that or the other. I can just be Michael Kiwanuka.”
Following the disco-laced collaboration with nu-jazz musician Tom Misch titled ‘Money’ he released earlier this summer, Kiwanuka will take his new album on the road for the rest of this year and next, with the first UK shows announced today for March 2020.
Tickets for the tour go on sale Friday, 23 August. Visit the official artist website for more details and view the full tour itinerary below.
KIWANUKA will be released on 25 October and can be pre-ordered here. View the full tracklisting below.
KIWANUKA
1. You Ain’t The Problem
2. Rolling
3. I’ve Been Dazed
4. Piano Joint (This Kind Of Love) Intro
5. Piano Joint (This Kind Of Love) Main
6. Another Human Being PJ Lid
7. Living In Denial
8. Hero
9. Hard To Say Goodbye
10. Final Days
11. Interlude (Loving The People)
12. Solid Ground
13. Light
Michael Kiwanuka Live:
10th August – Haldern Pop Festival, Germany
30th August – End of the Road Festival, UK
1st September – Electric Picnic, Ireland
23rd November – La Salle Pleyel, Paris
24th November – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels
26th November – AFAS Live, Amsterdam
27th November – Essigfabrik, Cologne
29th November – K.B Hallen, Copenhagen
30th November – Gota Lejon, Stockholm
1st December – Rockefeller Music Hall, Oslo
3rd December – Huxleys Neue Welt, Berlin
4th December – Batschkapp, Frankfurt
6th December – Stadthalle Halle F, Vienna
7th December – Fabrique Milano, Milan
UK Headline Dates, 2020:
2nd March – O2 Guildhall, Southampton
3rd March – O2 Academy, Bournemouth
5th March -O2 Academy Brixton, London
6th March – O2 Academy, Birmingham
7th March – O2 Apollo, Manchester
9th March – Corn Exchange, Cambridge
10th March – De Montford Hall, Leicester
12th March – O2 Academy, Leeds
13th March – O2 Academy, Newcastle
14th March – Barrowlands, Glasgow
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