Michael Kiwanuka

“It’s been thrilling to watch Michael Kiwanuka blossom,” said Greg Kot in the Chicago Tribune. The British singer-songwriter of Ugandan heritage became an unlikely star when HBO’s Big Little Lies used his symphonic “Cold Little Heart” as its mournful theme song. That hit came from Kiwanuka’s sophomore effort, Love & Hate, which stretched his melancholy mix of folk and soul to create “wide-screen epics dusted with strings and acid-rock guitar solos.” Kiwanuka’s third album further expands the sound while the singer grapples with doubts about himself and the world. “His voice remains plaintive, understated, deeply textured, but there’s a resolve that wasn’t as evident on his earlier work.” If you’re not in the mood for the “languorous introspection” of “Solid Ground,” skip straight to “Hard to Say Goodbye” for “1960s-style orchestral cinematics,” said Kitty Empire in The Observer (U.K.). The album’s “borderline psychedelic shimmer” is its greatest strength; its only weakness is that Kiwanuka “could have been even braver.”

Sudan Archives “has liberated herself from any preset expectations,” said Allison Hussey in Pitchfork .com. On two EPs that she’s released in the past two years, the Cincinnati-raised, L.A.-based singer and violinist had used a mix of hip-hop beats, lilting R&B melodies, and fiddling inspired by Sudanese and Ghanaian traditions to create such earworm singles as “Come

Meh Way” and “Nont for Sale.” But now the same tool kit is being used to create music that’s deeper, broader, and stranger. “The bass scoops lower, the grooves get funkier,” and the artist’s layered violin tracks “give the illusion of a full orchestra.” All in all, “it’s a rare thrill to hear an artist making leaps and bounds in such a short span of time.” Though the fiddle parts are often at least as infectious as the cooing vocals, the two swirl together on “Confessions,” the album’s lead single, said Ryan Leas in Stereogum.com. “These songs will weave their way into your mind with the same elusive rhythms of a trickling river or dancing flames.”