Michael Kiwanuka “They Say I’m Doing Just Fine”
Judging by the consensus of the blogosphere (at least the corners we frequent), many (including us) were left letting out a head-scratch-accompanied “Who?!” at last week’s news that inching ahead of Web-popular acts Frank Ocean, Azealia Banks and Skrillex to take home BBC’s top Sound of 2012 honors was the comparably lesser-known Michael Kiwanuka. But in the few minutes that it took to accomplish a bit of Google-sleuthing and music-sampling, it didn’t take long to figure out the “Why”‘s around the whole thing.
To put it simply: 24-year-old Kiwanuka, born in London to immigrant Ugandan parents, is the latest singer-songwriter to be hit with the hyperbolic crit praise of representing that ever-desired pendulum swing back to Real Music, his material specializing in the kind of wearied, acousti-folk-soul MOR laments about life, love and spirituality that have drawn heavy comparisons to names like Bill Withers, Otis Redding, Van Morrison and The Temptations (we’ll add Ray Charles to that list as well).
While it’s difficult to label his music groundbreaking, it’s not so hard understanding his appeal, the diary-stripped intimacy and easy-listening, vintage-baked comfort of his craft carrying a certain timelessness that should easily woo different generations of listeners under his spell.
Of Kiwanuka’s catalog so far, tops for us would have to be “They Say I’m Doing Just Fine”, a B-side to current single “Home Again” that captures him dwelling in a bittersweet moment where his dreams are starting to become a reality yet the unforeseen struggles that have come with reaching this plateau threaten to turn those same dreams into a nightmare.
Atop a melancholy arrangement constructed of country, blues, R&B, pop and gospel marrying influence (note our Ray comparisons above), Michael welcomes the bright future that has finally become within his grasp with his arrival in “Music City”, yet what should be his “time to shine” is quickly soured by the shady ways of an industry trying to turn him into somebody he’s not.
“This song it doesn’t fit me/ Now I’m losing my mind,” he sings, the soulful, beyond-his-years tone of his voice effectively bringing to life the internal puddle of frustration and devastation the situation has struck him with.
It’s the emotional force embedded within that croon that’s key here, yielding such a powerful sway that, as he yearns for some fragment of aid from both his mother and Higher Power, you can’t help but feel the same pangs of despair, and, when he finally decides at song’s end that he won’t let this current experience “get the best of (him)”, the demon-conquering uplift bleeds through the speakers into the insides with such weighty heft, by fade-out you’ll feel empowered to be just as strong in weeding through whatever dark situation you might be facing.
After hearing this, let’s just say you might not be so quick to question the BBC’s choice anymore.
Kiwanuka’s debut full-length, Home Again, drops March 26th in the UK.
