Michael Kiwanuka – Fudge (2xLP)

Michael Kiwanuka’s Fudge arrives as his first self-produced album since 2012’s Home Again, written almost alongside the sessions for 2024’s Small Changes. The record was sparked in part by advice Kiwanuka found in a Chick Corea interview during lockdown: trust what you genuinely love, rather than what might please other people. That impulse gives Fudge a particularly open, searching feel, with Kiwanuka leaning into spontaneity instead of the more sculpted studio approach of some of his recent work.

The album was made with producer Dom Monks and string collaborator Rosie Danvers, and its character seems to come from live, instinctive playing rather than careful polish. Reports around the release describe songs taking shape in the room with the band, blurring composition and performance; “Love in My Heart” is singled out as a slow-building centrepiece, while “Move in My Direction” captures the same directness with voice, guitar and strings recorded together. Kiwanuka has called it his loosest and most unstructured set so far, but also a continuation of the more intimate, melody-led direction heard on Small Changes.

That sense of optimism carries into Stevie Gee’s sleeve art, a vivid psychedelic design by one of Kiwanuka’s longtime visual collaborators. Taken together, Fudge sounds less like a reset than a deepening: soulful, warm, and intentionally guided by feel.