Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate

Love & Hate is the second studio album by British blues & soul musician Michael Kiwanuka, released in July 2016 via Polydor Records.

Love & Hate is a fascinatingly assured and resonant body of work, and follows Michael’s acclaimed 2012 debut LP, Home Again. Having introduced himself and that voice to the world in 2011 with the raw soul of Tell Me A Tale, Love & Hate is a record that sounds as though it has been unearthed from a long forgotten studio canister in the seventies, but is permeated with a timelessness that defies any artist of any specific era.

If the ‘death of the album’ is still an ongoing conversation, Michael Kiwanuka’s new record is a startling, emphatic response to its enduring importance.

Where Home Again provoked comparisons to the likes of Bill Withers and Otis Redding, Michael’s new album struts to a much more psychedelic, freeform beat.

Its opening number, the peerless ten-minute opus "Cold Little Heart" evokes the haze of Pink Floyd in its unhurried slow-burn, whilst "Falling" is a soaring gospel number for the 21st century. There are standout tunes throughout, but really Love & Hate is an album that genuinely deserves to be listened to as one, littered as it is with 'headphones moments’ that require real attention to the light and shade of its creation.

Upon its release, Love & Hate received widespread critical acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 86, based on 23 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The Telegraph said "This is an album that sounds like a world of music in itself", while The Guardian called the album "the work of an artist coming into his own".

The album was produced by Danger Mouse, Inflo, and Paul Butler.

The first single, "Black Man in a White World" was released in March 2016, and was accompanied by a video directed by Hiro Murai. The second single, "Love & Hate", was released in April 2016.

The album has reached #1 in the UK Albums chart, #170 on the US Billboard 200 and #35 in the Australian ARIA Albums charts.

This limited double album 2LP record set on 180 gram heavyweight vinyl is housed in a gatefold sleeve and includes a digital download code, pressed in Europe.