Kiwanuka is back at last... and it was so well worth the wait

Michael Kiwanuka Brixton Academy ★★★★✩

MICHAEL Kiwanuka’s Brixton Academy gig was first postponed back in March 2020, but not for the reason all the others were. A few weeks before Covid shut down live music, Kiwanuka — who would win the Mercury Prize for his eponymous third album six months later — cancelled the gig just hours before stage time after contracting laryngitis. Then it couldn’t be played for another two years.

The 2019 album KIWANUKA was his best yet, a timeless blend of psych, folk, soul and balladry that won him the Mercury and gave him fans in both the chin-stroking musos and everyday casuals. That it’s only now that the album can gets its in-person coronation is a shame, but the adoration around it hasn’t faded since its release, and the Brixton show was rapturously received from a crowd intimately engaged with every note played. The buzz around Kiwanuka’s eventual live return in the capital couldn’t be questioned — even the Mayor was on the guestlist.

Kiwanuka, below, stayed largely silent between songs during the 18-song set, instead letting highlights from his three studio albums and its gorgeously vivid storytelling and rich instrumentation do the talking. On Wednesday, he’ll scale up for a gig at Alexandra Palace, and you feel even that won’t be the limit of his ambitions.

With songs as good as these, a personality as affable as his and a live show that exuded class and grace, a decade from now he could be a bona fide national treasure.