Double album
Untitled (Black Is) capped off a 13-month period in which
Sault also released
5 and
7. The rush of creativity is all the more astonishing when factoring that core members
Dean "Inflo" Josiah Cover and
Cleopatra "Cleo Sol" Nikolic also created the latter's
Rose in the Dark, and the former, amid other work, co-produced the U.K. Top Ten entry
Kiwanuka. Black pride and resistance fueled some of the most powerful songs on the first two
Sault albums, so when this third one landed on Juneteenth 2020, amid worldwide protests against police brutality, it came as no surprise that those themes had bubbled to the fore. As a consequence,
Untitled (Black Is) comes across as an urgent outpouring of grief, anger, affirmation, and consolation, and at the same time, it stretches
Sault's stylistic range to an extent where virtually anything seems possible for their future. In the present,
Inflo and
Cleo Sol are joined again by
Kid Sister as an extra lyricist and voice (heard most often in the numerous poetic interludes), and they're markedly augmented by keyboardist and fellow co-writer
Kadeem Clarke, among other unattributed instrumentation and vocals. The quality control isn't quite as tight. Some songs meander long after making their point. A greater position of the sequence, however, is filled with indestructible art that consoles, challenges, and invigorates with gospel, doo wop, highlife, psychedelicized garage rock, dub, and post-punk funk all filtered with uncommon aptitude through vintage outsider soul. Highlights are abundant. "Wildfires," guided by a slinking bassline and a tender vocal, is a downcast but fearless rejection of "white lives spreading lies" and murderous police. "Sorry Ain't Enough" is something like a strung-out private-press soul oddity set aglow with a defiant and irresistible hook. "Bow," featuring
Michael Kiwanuka, is a searing celebration of Africa and freedom, trailed by a strong bulletin delivered by
Laurette Josiah. Stashed deep in the second half and yet nowhere near the end, "Eternal Life" is a spellbinding boom-clap anthem, an assertion of faith and solidarity, with an escalating synthesizer pattern as crucial as the mix of voices. The song is actually central to the album and would have made for an all-time great epilogue. ~ Andy Kellman
