There have been few less expected aural pleasures this year than Cherry’s fourth (fourth?! Lazy cow…) solo record and first since way back in 1996. Neneh Cherry’s an often overlooked influence on modern pop, not just the assured mashing of genres in her music, but her whole ‘B-girl goes to art school’ astethic that can be seen these days all over modern female pop stars from Iggy Azalea to Lorde to Robyn (who guests here on possible album highlight Out of the Black). It seems these days that everyone wants to be like Neneh Cherry. Well, everyone apart from Cherry herself, who instead releases an album of brilliantly abbrasive and deeply challenging minimalist electronica. As Cherry’s voice simply falls into feral cries of ecstacy in album closer Everything it’s almost as if the achievement of creating such a brilliant work has pushed Cherry into orgasmic joy.
3/5
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