Albums this week: Joan Armatrading returns to familiar ground, while Kim Deal and Michael Kiwanuka try something new

★★★★☆

Michael Kiwanuka works at his own pace, such is the unhurried and unheralded arrival of his fourth album Small Changes. It was worth the wait, of course – the British-Ugandan artist is one of our finest songwriters, with a sun-drenched Seventies sound capable of soothing the most troubled of souls.

On “Rebel Soul”, piano notes arpeggiate like dusk-dappled autumn leaves on soft ground; the tap of a hi-hat precedes Kiwanuka’s earthy murmurs. “The Rest Of Me” coasts on languorous bass grooves courtesy of Welsh musician Pino Palladino, while the Bill Withers-indebted “Floating Parade” is an ocean all of its own, sprawling across celestial harmonies and ripples of strings.

Small Changes sees Kiwanuka returning to trusted co-producers Inflo (Little Simz, Cleo Soul) and Danger Mouse (Gorillaz, Black Keys) but – as the album title suggests – they’re not out to repeat the jittery energy of 2019’s Mercury Prize-winning Kiwanuka. Here, we find him in a more meditative space, illuminated by the experience of his last five years. Roisin O’Connor

★★★★☆

Kim Deal’s debut solo album is decades in the making – no surprise when you consider the meticulous attention to detail she brought to Pixies and continues to bring to The Breeders. Nobody Loves You More, then, is a masterfully produced work, featuring the candid “Wish I Was” and “Are You Mine?”, a moving account of Alzheimer’s written from the perspective of her late mother over lap steel guitars. It doubles as a love song. “Are you mine?/ Are you my baby?” she sings. From there, Deal burns bright over the sludgy grunge of “Disobedience” and loses herself, like Alice in Wonderland, down the strange rabbit hole of “Bats in the Afternoon Sky”. It’s a superb album, full of welcome surprises. ROC

★★★★☆

When it comes to the great singer-songwriters of the latter half of the 20th century, there are few more impressive than Joan Armatrading, the artist behind classics such as “Down to Zero” and “Drop the Pilot”. At 73, Armatrading seems to have suffered none of the loss of vigour that has diminished some of her better-known contemporaries; her 21st album, How Did This Happen And What Does it Now Mean, is a vibrant and thoroughly pleasing addition to her catalogue.

The disco-inflected album opener “25 Kisses” is a standout, while “Someone Else” – a propulsive, guitar-led song with an earworm of a chorus – would feel right at home on 1980’s Me Myself I.

Armatrading has proved more than willing to evolve down the years, but How Did This Happen is mostly a welcome return to familiar sounds and ideas. She produced the album at home, playing all the instruments herself (as she has done for decades) with considerable slickness. The slower numbers don’t quite live up to Armatrading’s indelible best, and the mileage on two funky instrumental numbers (“Back and Forth” and “Now What”) will likely depend on your tolerance for protracted guitar solos, but the latter in particular is a hoot. What Does It Now Mean? I’m not quite sure, but I’m going to keep listening. Louis Chilton