"KIWANUKA" is the Mercury Prize winning third studio album from singer and songwriter Michael Kiwanuka. He is beloved by progressive music fans in his native U.K. He's been nominated for the Mercury Prize for his previous albums ("Home Again" and "Love & Hate") and also received a Brit Prize nom for the latter. Further, his song "Cold Little Heart" became a kind of international indie hit after it was chosen as the theme song for HBO's star-studded series Big Little Lies. Born to Ugandan parents who fled during Idi Amin's reign of terror and settled in Muswell Hill, Kiwanuka has had to fight to keep his identity at the forefront of the culture; numerous record execs tried to get him to dump his birth name for one easier to market, resulting in such a crisis of self-confidence that he shelved an earlier album called Night Songs, recorded as the initial follow-up to "Home Again", so he could decide if he even wanted to continue pursuing a musical vocation. This third album wears its self-titling as a badge of honor, a statement of who Michael Kiwanuka as artist and individual is. Once more produced by Danger Mouse and Inflo, this 13-song set is a brave, colorful collection that provides an exceptionally well-rounded aural portrait of Kiwanuka's massive and diverse talent. If one had to choose a genre umbrella for this release, the term "21st century psychedelic soul" would fit better than anything else. The opening tune here, "You Ain't the Problem," carries the inspiration of