MUSIC TO DOWNLOAD THIS WEEK

ALBUM

Lost & Found – Jorja Smith

Picture the scene: you and a “friend” are lounging about the house on a Saturday afternoon. The weather outside means at least one of you is wearing knitwear but there’s a heater on in the background so shoes are splayed across the room. Glasses cup various amounts of reasonably priced wine and laughter bounces off the walls, but the air is redolent with sexual tension. Someone is definitely trying to get laid but also wants it to mean more than just a casual afternoon of genital friction. In moments like this, the right music can mean the difference between ruffled sheets and a solo visit to Pornhub. This is the moment you need Jorja Smith’s debut album Lost & Found.

As is often the case these days, Smith had been teasing an album for months by putting out a succession of singles, music videos and an EP, most of which have received favourable reviews. As a result, expectations for this album were high — and the 21year-old has managed to match them with surprising sultriness.

In this day and age albums tend to function more as a collection of songs to be inserted into a playlist rather than a carefully curated body of work. With this album it feels like effort has been put into how the album plays and that is Lost & Found’s greatest strength. The album turns itself into a mood. It is less about the beautifully written songs or Smith’s voice. It’s about the moment that those factors come together to create and how, when played at just the right volume, the entire body of work weaves itself together in such a way as to render a playlist pointless.

A lot of lyrical wax could be spent praising the songwriting, the fact that Smith’s voice reminds me of a voluptuous red wine, and the general quality of the album, but none of that is really important. What really matters is the person in a cream wool jumper sitting on the other side of the couch, inching their hand towards yours as Lost & Found plays in the background.