The Painter (2022)

"It’s good to have William Orbit back. After a brief and unrewarding dabble with drug addiction, the veteran English musician had a comeback of sorts with 2021’s patchy Starbeam EP, but The Painter is a more satisfying return. Longtime collaborators Katie Melua and Beth Orton seem almost smothered by his efforts here, but there’s a gentle grandeur to first single Colours Colliding, with Polly Scattergood giving it her best Björk among some lovely strings and piano. It would be nice to have more dancefloor-friendly beats, like the Despacito dancehall kick powering Nuestra Situación, but there aren’t many artists who could create Heshima kwa Hukwe, a tribute to departed Tanzanian singer Hukwe Zawose without seeming grimly exploitative. Like the album as a whole, it’s slightly overlong and unnecessarily repetitive, but clearly made with great care and affection." (The Guardian)

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