June 2025 AOTM

 Lotus - Album by Little Simz | Spotify

Little Simz - Lotus

Tracks 13

Runtime 49mins

Favorite Tracks Flood, Young, Only, Lion, Blood

 

When choosing my album of the month I usually try to pick releases from smaller artists, and at around 6.5 million listeners per month London born rapper Little Simz is far larger than her name suggests. But that monthly number could be ten, a hundred, a thousand times larger, and I would still think she is being underrated. The sheer quality and consistency of her work from the lyricism, to the flow, to the instrumentation and composition is matched by very, very few other rappers. Her 2021 album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert and her 2022 album NO THANK YOU are both absolute masterpieces and have cemented themselves firmly as two of my all time favorite rap albums. 

With this new release, Simz may have just secured a third spot on that list. Simz is no stranger to groove. On previous projects she uses it like saffron, seasoning and elevating her massive delicate orchestral soundscapes from floating to flying, building not just scale but huge pieces of emotional punctuation for her lyrics. This project however, is dripping in groove, a buttery smooth seamless effortless feeling groove you just can’t help but move along with.

Her style on this album takes a lot of influence from South London Jazz, a newer wave of jazz just as influenced by hip hop, garage, neo psychedelia, neo soul, and afrobeat as it has influenced them. Even going so far as to feature drummer Yussef Dayes, one of the bigger names in the scene, she uses everything south London jazz has to offer so beautifully. It shows best in the instrument choice. Her love for recorded instrumentation hasn’t budged an inch with the genre shift, she makes this clear instantaneously. The very first second of the album is a spaced out guitar chord with an almost surf rock tone and a very slightly distorted bassline, demonstrating not just eye and ear for that smooth flowing south London composition, but her comfort with grit. 

She embraces it even more in Young, with a messy punk vibe and a mocking posh British accent. It’s a really out of nowhere vibe for Simz given how polished her style usually is and to be honest I found it off putting at first. The song comes off as a joke, a parody of itself, mocking British people and British post punk. It is, undeniably, silly. But I can’t stop coming back to it. It somehow fits so well, sandwiched between Flood, an intense marching afrobeat inspired track and Only, with its laid back bossa nova piano. I can tell it’s going to be a super polarizing track given how unexpected it is but I love it.

On top of this, I think Young’s comedic lyrics about being young and dumb and the bad decisions you make also fit really well with the context of the album. On this album Simz is a friend betrayed, reeling from a falling out with her closest friend. Simz gave longtime friend and producer Inflo a 2.2 million dollar loan, and he never repaid it, leading to lawsuits and the loss of someone whose talents were a huge part of Simz’s sound. Her lyrics on Lotus muse on this, the forms love can take, how the mistakes of youth echo throughout your entire life, and healing from wounds deeper than the physical in a fucked up world. They’re not new topics, but Simz’s abilities as a lyricist and storyteller make them compelling and fresh nonetheless. 

One of my personal favorites is the song Blood, where she and Wretch 32 play the part of brother and sister, in a conversation halfway between an argument and a raw heart-to-heart. The story is fictional in at least some part, Simz and Wretch 32 aren’t actually related, but it’s so open and personal, and in one conversation they’re able to explore so much. It’s a song about what families become as they age, about trying to be there for someone you grew up with but haven’t seen in years, about trauma. It’s about loving the people you hate and hating the people you love. 

In a discography of so many powerhouses, Little Simz has added another gold star to her record. Lotus is an album that moves every part of you. It knows its influences well and dances with them at every opportunity, spotting you across the room and pulling you in just the same. 

 

 

Other Albums from this month I enjoyed

McKinley Dixon - Magic, Alive!

  • Higher energy than I expected from a jazz rap project. If you liked Lotus as much as I did you will love this

Durand Jones & The Indication - Flowers

  • One of my favorite neo soul projects returns with their usual high quality and the bass turned up a bit higher than usual. Will be very surprised if we don’t start hearing rappers sample this

Kevin Abstract - Blush

  • Potentially his best solo project, fans of iridescence era Brockhampton will love this

Greet Death - Die in Love

  • Depressive slow grunge with a shoegaze kick

BAMBII - INFINITY CLUB II

  • So much vibe packed into a 24min dnb project. The vocals are a great centerpiece, fantastic ravyn lenae feature

Turnstile - NEVER ENOUGH

  • Never got super into their last album. This one is a bit more on the side of fun pop rock but never loses that heavier side its such a blast to listen to 

Chanpan - Endlessly

  • No clue what to even call this one. It’s jazzy, it has breakbeats, r&b style vocals, an old school funk approach to writing riffs. It’s only 21mins but I wish it was much longer

Smut - tomorrow comes crashing

  • Like if Mazzy star started playing rock music. Momma fans will love this  

Thesaurus Rex - Greatest Hits.

  • It's indie rock made of jazz chords and lyrics about banging married women and making money forging absentee ballots whats not to love?


Albums from previous months I missed

Keep - Almost Static

  • Scratches every shoegaze itch I’ve ever had. Perfect crafting of atmosphere, the title track gives me chills every time

lexycat - heartstrings

  • Another ponystep artist getting a bit more emo rock with it. Fans of Monarch of Monsters by Vylet Pony will love this