I Am

This is UK soul chanteuse Alice Russell’s first solo album since 2013, and there’s no sign of the funky breakbeat samples or seventies wah-wah guitar of the neo-soul/retro R’n’B aesthetic she pursued then. Instead, I Am features a starker, more restrained and contemporary sonic palette, rooted in the soul/funk tradition but gently re-worked with slick 21st-century sonics, and much more fitting for its sombre mood. Russell’s themes here are grief, struggle, healing and strength, and together with her long-time collaborator and co-producer TM Juke she’s produced an album of authentic, introspective contemporary soul that feels raw — its big themes of, literally, life and death unsurprisingly producing intense performances — but with the rough edges smoothed out, and with a gently glowing positivity emerging from the real-life drama she documents. Accomplished, bittersweet, and unassumingly beautiful.