Michael Kiwanuka FUDGE
Released Oct 23, 2026 Polydor Records
Established consensus 6 professional reviews Updated Oct 23, 2026
Broadly positive consensus
Michael Kiwanuka's FUDGE finds beauty in looseness and uncertainty, yielding a quietly compelling record whose pleasures come with some risk of drift.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
Summer Clothes
3 critic mentions
“It’s a simple, domestic image that feels perfect, like something he’d write on a note stuck to the fridge.” — Shatter The Standards
California
3 critic mentions
“California" brings the rhythm section back into focus, but the telephone-filtered vocal, reminiscent of Damon Albarn’s work as 2-D, keeps things slightly at a remove.” — The Line of Best Fit
Across The Sky
3 critic mentions
“the acoustic Across the Sky starts abruptly in the middle of a chord, as if someone frantically hit the “record” button after Kiwanuka started playing” — The Guardian
Full critic consensus
Michael Kiwanuka's FUDGE finds beauty in looseness and uncertainty, yielding a quietly compelling record whose pleasures come with some risk of drift. Across six professional reviews, it earns a 75/100 consensus score: critics praise its tender songwriting, spacious arrangements, and willingness to let songs take shape without conventional constraints, though some find its unhurried, directionless quality less engaging.
The strongest critical consensus gathers around “Love In My Heart,” named by five critics among the album’s highlights, and “Stars,” praised by four. The former wraps handmade psychedelic soul in a lovely string arrangement; the latter sets a fierce opening and spiky guitar against opulent strings and anxieties about the joy of making music. Other standout songs include “Summer Clothes,” admired for its beguiling arrangement, and “California,” where melancholy meets the fragility of Kiwanuka’s wavering voice. Critics also single out “Drowning In Your Heart” for its affecting simplicity and unsettling violin climax, while “Sing” lets grief surface through the spacious chorus and vocal cracks.
Across the reviews, romance, loss, creative freedom, and the search for beauty amid confusion give the record its emotional pull. Some critics hear an elegant, blissed-out experiment that trades polish for rawness; others note that the lack of destination can make it harder to stay immersed. Still, the consensus is that Kiwanuka’s melodic instincts and expressive voice make FUDGE rewarding even when its wandering arrangements test patience. These reviews trace both its most memorable songs and the uncertainty that gives them character.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Summer Clothes
California
Just Another Moment
Drowning In Your Heart
Love In My Heart
Across The Sky
Stars
You Sent Me Flying
Move In My Direction
Steve's Paradise
Sing
Swings and Roundabouts
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 7 critics who reviewed this album
Ro
Critic's Take
Michael Kiwanuka strips things back to their purest and most minimal form on FUDGE, where songs unfurl slowly and beautifully, unburdened by traditional structures or constraints. Most stunning is “Drowning In Your Heart,” a strikingly simple song that, in Kiwanuka’s hands, becomes deeply impactful. It is among the best songs on FUDGE, a bittersweet but beautiful reminder of his songwriting brilliance and of following that path towards beauty.
Key Points
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“Drowning In Your Heart” is the standout because its striking simplicity becomes deeply impactful in Kiwanuka’s hands.
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The album’s stripped-back, slow-unfurling songs make a bittersweet but beautiful reminder of songwriting brilliance and the pursuit of beauty.
Themes
Critic's Take
Michael Kiwanuka evidently felt confident enough to let these songs take their own shape, and the best tracks on FUDGE are melodically stronger than you might expect from their jammed-into-existence beginnings. Whether doleful, as on “California,” or lovestruck, as on “You Sent Me Flying,” the tunes are uniformly memorable. “Stars” chafes its spiky guitar solo against opulent strings, while “Love In My Heart” has a particularly lovely string arrangement. It sounds remarkably like the work of a man who knows exactly what he wants to do.
Key Points
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“Stars” is a standout for the way its spiky guitar soloing chafes against opulent strings.
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The album’s strongest qualities are memorable melodies, warm performances, and arrangements that feel vivid rather than self-indulgent.
Themes
Critic's Take
Michael Kiwanuka’s FUDGE was a drive for playfulness and experimentation, but it was created by a man on the precipice of unforeseen tragedy. The best songs on FUDGE find their emotional heft in the spacious chorus of “Sing” and the melancholic tone of “California,” where Kiwanuka’s voice finds beauty in a tendency to waver and show fragility. At the climax of “Drowning In Your Heart,” a haywire violin rings like the uncomfortable conclusion to a chapter dramatically slammed shut.
Key Points
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“Sing” is the most affecting song, its spacious chorus carrying greater emotional heft in light of Kiwanuka’s vocal recovery.
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The album’s warm soulfulness and experimental sonic progressions make it a deeply poignant glimpse at Kiwanuka’s creative state.
Themes
Fa
Critic's Take
Michael Kiwanuka’s FUDGE is a reminder that beautiful and cruel can coexist without being at odds with each other. Far more understated than his work alongside Danger Mouse and Inflo, these sprawling, elegant songs carry a bittersweet feeling and a rawness their creator never intended. The best song on FUDGE is “Love In My Heart,” named the standout amid a record of loss, confusion and hard goodbyes. Yet the album’s other message is the one we ought to heed: we all have the capacity to heal from painful experiences and look forward to brighter futures.
Key Points
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“Love In My Heart” is the best song because the reviewer explicitly names it the album’s standout.
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The album’s understated, elegant songs hold loss and hard goodbyes alongside the possibility of healing.
Themes
Sh
Critic's Take
Michael Kiwanuka lets Chick Corea host FUDGE, a collection of slow soul music and a lesson in being certain of what you like. The best songs on FUDGE include “Summer Clothes,” with its beguiling arrangement and perfect, domestic image, and “Move In My Direction,” whose motorway makes the chorus all the more striking. “Swings and Roundabouts” pares things back to one other man in the studio, as Kiwanuka sings that his heart feels like a hotel room. Whatever came after Corea, no matter how scared it was of not knowing what it was doing, can at least shrug it off with one other man by its side.
Key Points
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“Summer Clothes” is the best song for its beguiling arrangement and perfect, domestic image.
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The album’s core strength is the way a live band, choir, strings, and collaborators pursue Kiwanuka’s ideas of what sounds good.
Themes
Critic's Take
Michael Kiwanuka takes Chick Corea at his word on FUDGE, sounding blissed out, untethered, with no particular destination in mind. The best songs on FUDGE make a convincing case for simply inhabiting the work: “Love In My Heart” reaches towards handmade psychedelic soul, while “Stars” supplies a friction otherwise found in short supply. “Summer Clothes” hangs on cloud-back, pleased with the view, and “Across The Sky” pares back to an acoustic reckoning with mortality and artistic posterity. The trouble with having nowhere to be is that the listener can feel under less obligation to stay, but FUDGE is often beautiful, and sometimes thrillingly strange.
Key Points
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"Stars" is the standout because its sweet vocal passages and guitar lament create friction otherwise in short supply.
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The album’s strengths are its inviting psychedelic soul and moments of beauty and thrilling strangeness, though its indulgent pacing can test the listener.
Themes
Critic's Take
Michael Kiwanuka does romance very well on FUDGE, a delightfully loose, squashy and often sweet record. The best songs on FUDGE include “You Sent Me Flying,” gorgeous and tender over the softest strums of acoustic guitar, with strings and dreamy slide guitar gradually swooning into view. “Stars” opens fiercely, but frets that the joy of making music is slipping away; in “Sing,” the slight cracks in Kiwanuka’s voice allow real grief to shine through. That ethos rewards both him and the listener on this wonderful record.
Key Points
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“You Sent Me Flying” is the standout for its tender vocal, soft acoustic strums, and gradual, dreamy instrumental swell.
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The album’s loose, playful arrangements make room for romance and for the grief shining through songs like “Sing.”