Sampha - No One Knows Me

Music 5 years ago

Sampha - No One Knows Me

It now seems curious that London electro-soul singer Sampha made his name as a collaborator with other mononyms—Kanye, Drake, Solange—when he had such a singular,

achingly personal drive at his core: the long cancer battle and eventual death of his mother, and his struggle to come to terms with it.

Grief runs through his long-awaited debut, Process, like a solitary, sustained note,

his luscious voice like a cry padded with cotton and shredding at the corners. The album is as effortful in discovery as the title suggests,

but it edges away from neat resolutions and Hallmark platitudes.