By Nsiiro Jacob
The singer-songwriter’s second studio album Love & Hate is Number 1 as of today’s update, 1,300 copies ahead of his nearest rival Adele. Majority of the Ugandans got to learn Micheal kiwanuka’s name when he was placed in the same category of the BET viewer ship award with Eddy kenzo plus a full documentary about him that was aired on DSTV for three consecutive weeks reviewing his music journey.
In times of pain and fear, the past can feel like a refuge. Michael Kiwanuka’s second album, “Love & Hate,” is a sustained, stylized plunge into despair: plaints of isolation, doubt, lovelessness, racial injustice, longing, hopelessness and a certain resolve despite it all, often set to mournful minor chords. “Love and hate — how much more are we supposed to tolerate?” he asks in the title song, before quietly insisting, “You can’t break me down.” The album’s comforts lie in its spacious retro sound. The producer Danger Mouse (who shares production credits on the album with Inflo and, on a few tracks, Paul Butler) places Mr. Kiwanuka in a realm of string orchestras and wordless backup chorales, of rich reverb and staticky vintage-amp distortion, of unprogrammed drums and leisurely buildups.
Mr. Kiwanuka’s voice doesn’t appear until halfway through the 10-minute opening song, “Cold Little Heart” — after an overture of quivering strings and a female chorus singing oohs and ahs, patiently transporting the song and the album to an early-1960s soundstage. Mr. Kiwanuka, a 29-year-old Englishman whose parents are from Uganda, isn’t the only songwriter who’s decisively turning his back on the synthesized constructs of mainstream R&B.
