Little Simz - Lotus 

Little Simz is - and, really, has always been - far from a straightforward artist. From the curtain-raising orchestral pomp of ‘Introvert’ (the pseudo title track of her Mercury Prize-winning 2021 album), to the nostalgia-tinged bounce of ‘101 FM’ (lifted from 2019’s ‘GREY Area’) and beyond, she’s constantly sought to redefine the parameters of rap and reaffirm its place at the vanguard of mainstream music. She’s also well used to collaboration, possessing the artistic generosity and industry nous to engineer perfectly-pitched features that enhance her own spotlight, not dim it. And, on sixth studio album ‘Lotus’, she elevates both these hallmarks to thrilling new heights.

The follow up proper to 2022’s ‘NO THANK YOU’ - having plugged the (still minimal) gap between full-lengths with last year’s appetite-whetting ‘Drop 7’ EP - ‘Lotus’ finds Simz balancing the introspective, sometime anxiety of that last release with a real sense of outward-facing experimentation and playfulness. On the one hand, there’s the cinematic slink of opener ‘Thief’ (an eviscerating account of personal betrayal); the twinkly, almost old-school Disney soundscape of ‘Hollow’ (a strings-flecked search for catharsis); the arresting exchange of ‘Blood’ (a Wretch 32-featuring mediation on sibling dynamics and disconnect); or the hard-edged majesty of the title track, on which Simz’s bite stands in striking contrast to the salve of Michael Kiwanuka and Yussef Dayes.

Elsewhere, high vibrations abound. ‘Lion’ sees her team up once more with longtime collaborator Obongjayar for a swaggering injection of braggadocio, while the gleefully unselfconscious ‘Young’ has her adopting a pantomime RP accent to caricature the blissful ignorance of rich kids, punctuated by a chorus refrain that wouldn’t sound out of place nestled within The Streets’ discography. ‘Enough’, meanwhile, is an intoxicating, irresistibly danceable gem; all funk bass and driving, LCD Soundsystem-esque percussion, it’s a surefire should-have-been-a-single that, if there’s any justice, will land firmly on end of year lists far and wide.

It’s against this backdrop of confident self-assurance, then, that Simz stages her closing statements, ‘Lonely’ and ‘Blue’ - two unflinchingly vulnerable offerings that candidly detail the insecurities and identity crises that informed the making of ‘Lotus’. (“Maybe music just isn’t meant for me anymore / Maybe I’ll erase all of these memories from my core / Maybe I’ll do more acting and less rapping / ‘Cos I don’t even know who I’m meant to be anymore”). Named for the concepts of growth, rebirth, and blossoming amidst imperfect circumstances that its titular flower represents, it’s an album that sees Simz acknowledge that success and self-doubt aren’t mutually exclusive - that she can embody all of the above, all at once.

Little Simz has long been one of the most consistently interesting, innovative, and important artists out there - and with the arrival of ‘Lotus’, her legacy as an all-time great has never been more assured.