Michael Kiwanuka – ‘Fudge’ review: a powerful portrait of a man on the precipice of tragedy

The muted, rumbling rhythm sections; the warm guitar tones and grounding basslines; the strings that cut like a Japanese knife through the soft soulfulness; and the rich, humble voice that brings it all together: at its core, Michael Kiwanuka‘s new record ‘Fudge’ traces a continuous path from his last album, 2024’s critically acclaimed ‘Small Changes’. But the world the Mercury Prize-winning singer-songwriter is living in couldn’t be more different.

“I want to tell people why I haven’t been around. Everyone can relate to pain and struggle. That’s one thing all humans have in common. So I’m just sharing mine with the world,” Kiwanuka reflected in a recent Guardian interview outlining the devastating explanation for last summer’s cancelled live shows, and the silence that followed. Last July, the then-38-year-old suffered a haemorrhagic stroke caused by undiagnosed high blood pressure; he underwent emergency surgery, months of intensive care and many more months in rehabilitation at a medical centre in Hampshire, where he remains today.

This album was recorded before all that, self-produced in a studio near Kiwanuka’s Southampton home alongside trusted collaborators, like multi-instrumentalist Joe Connell. Later, there were valuable contributions from producer Dom Monks (Laura Marling, Big Thief) and long-standing strings collaborator Rosie Danvers (Adele, Coldplay). As the album’s bright bubblegum visual identity suggests, ‘Fudge’ was a drive for playfulness and experimentation; but it was created by a man on the precipice of unforeseen tragedy.

It’s impossible not to post-rationalise the record’s lyrical content. The revelation of Kiwanuka’s struggle to retrain his vocal cords after his breathing and speech were impacted by stroke-induced brain damage lends greater emotional heft to the spacious chorus of penultimate track ‘Sing’: “We’re nowhere if we never sing / Sing / Sing”. His vocals have always found beauty in a tendency to waver and show fragility; this peaks on ‘California’, where he sings “I need love, love, love, to take me home / I’ve been gone, gone, gone for way too long”, his melancholic tone resonating deeply at a time when illness continues to block his creative spirit.

At the climax of ‘Drowning in Your Heart’, the twisting and extinguishing of a haywire violin rings like the uncomfortable conclusion to a chapter dramatically slammed shut. In the space-traversing synths, crashing cymbals and fuzzy, virtuosic guitar of ‘Love In My Heart’, you’ll find Kiwanuka’s revered penchant for grand, epic sonic progressions; but the track’s long, pensive piano outro suggests a retreat away from the fire. Given the uncertainty around his future musical possibilities, this album is both an unexpected gift and a deeply poignant glimpse at the creative state before a life-altering moment. Drink it in, let it warm your soul, and be reminded how lucky we are to have an artist like Kiwanuka.

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