Night Time Is The Right Time For Michael Kiwanuka

Road tested soul. How enrapturing it truly is. From the lips of British newcomer Michael Kiwanuka, it's healing oil for whatever part of your body ails you. His guitar does its Joe Camel smoking thing and that makes his humble pronouncements revelations. "One More Night" will soothe your strung out nerves at a late night coffee club. In fact the jam would be your go-to means of release were the evening to hit rock bottom depressing. Mike's love for Otis Redding proves itself over and over again. No, it's not exactly "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" but its decades old beating heart still leaves its generation straddling mark. The tempo stays even keeled, the ideal framework with which to let the passionate words drip down your face like a singular drop of cleansing shower water. The backup drummer has his act in fourth gear knowing precisely how to get Michael's flow maximized. "One More Night" isn't bathed in depressive isolation derived onyx. Quite the contrary, Michael adopts a tone where making it to the morning light constitutes a deep victory for him. Given Michael escaped the Idi Amin regime to seek his fortune on our shores, I can see why the sunrises we take for granted would be out and out heavenly for him. Trying in the morning matters much to him. Isn't that what most of waking life amounts to anyway...trying regardless of how many times our spirits get battered around? You can be led to believe that Michael's joy at being a tiny part of life itself tickles him no end. Back to playing up guitar majesty. This guitar stoops down to grab private places a scrub brush can't reach and does so in tribute to homespun, decent intentions. The comparisons to Bill Withers are fairly appropriate. You can hear the nuances of "Lean On Me" float out of Kiwanuka's mouth if you lean in close enough. Bill never used bravado to sell his art. It doesn't appear like Michael's positioning himself to do that either. Understated gets the point across masterfully and, as a added bonus won't expose any of Mike's future listeners to overdrawn celebrity melodrama. In short "One More Night" constitutes a rich tip of the hat to R & B past while keeping one eye firmly set in the future.