Sampha – Lahai review

Winning big things is not necessarily always the career catalyst an outsider may feel it should be. Sampha’s debut album Process earned him a Mercury Prize in 2017, but whilst the kudos and commercial hits can be surfed for fun and profit, it isn’t true that creative fulfilment automatically follows.

A lot of things have happened since then, but happily one of them for the producer was the birth in 2020 of his daughter, a life changing event by any measure. Not that this meant his work ethic has slipped completely to idle – guest appearances don’t get much more prestigious than when they’re on Stormzy’s This Is What I Mean and Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers – but Lahai is his first release since, and one that unsurprisingly reflects both personal change and external uncertainty.

Musically Lahai skips from level to level, opener Stereo Colour Cloud (Shaman’s Dream) built over a fuzzy jungle loop before dissolving into dreamy ambience, whilst Jonathan L. Seagull mirrors the free-spirited existentialist cant of the book from which it takes it’s name. The lofty peak though is found on Spirit 2.0, an absorbing piece of 21st century soul that looks out towards a mystical far horizon. Winning is more than being given things; Lahai is proof that it only matters when it leads to growth.

You can read a full review here.