Sampa the Great, The Return, Album Review
Sampa the Great
The Return
Album Review
I first discovered Sampa the Great when I stumbled upon one of her most well known tracks currently; "Final Form" back when it was released. The impression that this song gave me was incredibly strong, and it displayed a tonne of promise. Sampa's vocal attitude and the production value ultimately made this track sound like what was set to follow was going to be extremely professional. And now that we have the recent release of Sampa's debut album The Return, we finally have a chance to experience what Sampa the Great is truly made of.
This album begins with a extremely soulful, almost chant-like melody which comes in the form of the track "Mwana", which does a marvellous job of setting the spiritual tone which will later span across the majority of the record.
I quickly notice that stylistically, this album could arguably be compared to the likes of artists such as Noname and Little Simz. In fact, I would even say that The Return is a stylistic fusion of each of these mentioned artist's latest albums; Noname's Room 25 and Little Simz's GREY Area. That being said, if you're a fan of either or both of those albums, I would totally recommend listening to this one.
This album is a level of spiritual that goes as far to even transcend the term. One cannot help but to feel some kind of otherworldly feeling listening to an album like this in the warm sun. Speaking of which, this album is indeed very warm in its nature, and it's a shame that it hadn't been released earlier, when the British summer was at its peak.
Additionally, this album has quite a strong narrative, which is tied together with a bunch of sound-clips of voice messages from Sampa's friends and/or family. It seems to suggest a story of finding ones-self, regardless of what you'd be leaving behind, before the "return" back home.
In terms of tracks, I found the end segment of this album to be abundant with tracks that weren't necessarily weak, but ones that did feel quite repetitive mainly due to their long run-time.
However, The Return is also scattered with countless good tracks. I loved the additional bars from Krown on both "Time's Up" and "Diamond In The Ruff", and I loved the homage to Simply Red's "You Make Me Feel Brand New" on Sampa's track "Brand New", which has a very early 2000's RnB vibe to it.
But above all, I find that the track "Dare To fly" is really growing on me as my current favourite track. The fluid rhythm, the animation of Sampa's vocals, and the colourful use of instrumentation in the production all culminate to create the closest thing to a perfect track on this album.
The Return is a striking and bold masterpiece with a highly poetic set of lyricisms, and marvellous production throughout. It is certainly one of 2019's staple albums, and you shouldn't miss out on this one.
Thank you for reading,
Booth Boy
This album begins with a extremely soulful, almost chant-like melody which comes in the form of the track "Mwana", which does a marvellous job of setting the spiritual tone which will later span across the majority of the record.
I quickly notice that stylistically, this album could arguably be compared to the likes of artists such as Noname and Little Simz. In fact, I would even say that The Return is a stylistic fusion of each of these mentioned artist's latest albums; Noname's Room 25 and Little Simz's GREY Area. That being said, if you're a fan of either or both of those albums, I would totally recommend listening to this one.
This album is a level of spiritual that goes as far to even transcend the term. One cannot help but to feel some kind of otherworldly feeling listening to an album like this in the warm sun. Speaking of which, this album is indeed very warm in its nature, and it's a shame that it hadn't been released earlier, when the British summer was at its peak.
Additionally, this album has quite a strong narrative, which is tied together with a bunch of sound-clips of voice messages from Sampa's friends and/or family. It seems to suggest a story of finding ones-self, regardless of what you'd be leaving behind, before the "return" back home.
In terms of tracks, I found the end segment of this album to be abundant with tracks that weren't necessarily weak, but ones that did feel quite repetitive mainly due to their long run-time.
However, The Return is also scattered with countless good tracks. I loved the additional bars from Krown on both "Time's Up" and "Diamond In The Ruff", and I loved the homage to Simply Red's "You Make Me Feel Brand New" on Sampa's track "Brand New", which has a very early 2000's RnB vibe to it.
But above all, I find that the track "Dare To fly" is really growing on me as my current favourite track. The fluid rhythm, the animation of Sampa's vocals, and the colourful use of instrumentation in the production all culminate to create the closest thing to a perfect track on this album.
The Return is a striking and bold masterpiece with a highly poetic set of lyricisms, and marvellous production throughout. It is certainly one of 2019's staple albums, and you shouldn't miss out on this one.
Thank you for reading,
Booth Boy
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