One of this year’s best music books, Songs in the Key of MP3 by Liam Inscoe-Jones, paints a picture of musicians of the “streaming era” having a different relationship to the past, compared to those of… well, the past. He shows how artists like Dev “Blood Orange” Hynes have adapted to mass availability of culture by indulging not in nostalgia for something vague, but using the endless micro detail at their fingertips for reconstructing, picking up unfinished business, creating “alternative presents” from which new lineages might branch off.
So it is with a lot of this year’s best records. Hynes’s own Essex Honey brings together the most delicate and obscure elements of indie, soul, avant-classical composition from decades gone to create his own personal sound of now. The much-hyped Geese sound at first like the archetypal New York hipster band, but on further listens quickly reveal the meticulousness with which they use influences as compositional tools, rewiring the past as they do. And so with London seven-piece Kokoroko on their second LP: what sounds incredibly familiar at first shows itself to be a radical remaking of historical possibilities.
Where their debut was mostly instrumental, this one is rich, lush songs, which exist in a Black / multicultural British lineage that runs through Cymande, lovers rock, The Real Thing, Sade, Loose Ends, Soul II Soul and on through the continuum of soul-jazz meeting soundsystem music. Yes, it does sound familiar, and also instantly soothing and joyous, so much so that you could easily miss the fact that the joining of decades and of styles is technically astonishing and also tells very new stories. The weaving of Ghanaian highlife, Fela Kuti Afrobeats, Cuban salsa and more into the reggae / soul / jazz / funk paints an alternate history of interacting Black Atlantic traditions being channelled through London.
Kokoroko aren’t alone in this. Glorious albums this year by Yazmin Lacey, Emma-Jean Thackray, Joe Armon Jones, Little Simz, SAULT, Rebecca Vasmant, Yazz Ahmed all show that the young UK soul-jazz generation isn’t just thriving, but diversifying as each tap into a similar pool of influences to represent very different personalities and life experiences. We are in a true renaissance, a golden age even, but even against those amazing records Tuff Times Never Last stands out for the sheer joy of its sound, for the way that tenderness, elegance and intimacy are fused so perfectly into heavyweight soundsystem bass, historical understandings and defiant expression of communal coherence. One for the ages in more than one sense.
Three More Essential Albums of 2025:
Sherelle – WITH A VENGEANCE
Chrissie Hynde & Pals – Duets Special
KiF – Still Out
Musical Experiences of the Year:
Reminders of the power of intimacy and community came in two very different forms this summer. One was my regular set playing “ambient” – but essentially anything dreamy and psychedelic – in the small hours to a vibed up but discerning gathering of diverse folk in the Once In A Blue Moon Tea Tent at We Out Here festival. The other was seeing my old friend Joel Culpepper (whose newest music shares a producer with Kokoroko and Little Simz in Miles Clinton-James) performing a tiny acoustic retrospective of his catalogue of neo-soul brilliance in a community garden in London. This was just as the far right were into the peak of their hateful nylon flag frenzy, and served as a reminder that creating small musical and personal sanctuaries away from the noise is not only self-care but is the most potent method we have for building back from the atomised and misinformation poisoned state we’ve found ourselves in.
Track of the Year
Bad Bunny – “DtMF”
Listen to "Da Du Dah":
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