Falling or flying / Jorja Smith.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

During 2021, the year she released the intermediate and mostly downcast Be Right Back EP, Jorja Smith moved back to her native Walsall after determining that London -- where she had moved to establish her career -- was not the place for her. The return enabled her to slow down in a familiar setting as she made the true follow-up to Lost & Found, her Mercury Prize-nominated album debut. Created primarily with Barbara Boko-Hyouyhat and Edith Nelson, an emergent Walsallian duo known as DAMEDAME*, Falling or Flying also involves, in roughly one-third of its tracks, P2J -- a versatile producer known for his work with Beyoncé, Wizkid, and Burna Boy -- showing that the still-independent Smith can attract high-profile collaborators as if she were a major-label flagship act. The complete turnover of collaborators and her retreat from the spotlight result in a fresh progression from Lost & Found that sees Smith examine herself, her relationships, and the ways she herself is scrutinized. Compared to the debut, the songs are a little tighter in structure, communicate more, and bounce from style to style -- whereas Lost & Found presented an evolved, commercially minded brand of street soul -- with introspective R&B always somewhere in the mix. The farthest deviation is "Go Go Go," a strummy bit of light pop-punk for Smith to sweep aside a lover with a pouty belligerence she hasn't shown before. Two others seduce in different backdrops. The title song, lush sophisti-pop redolent of Jessie Ware's Devotion, sees Smith suggesting a rendezvous with an implied ellipsis or batting eyelash at the end of "I don't know where you are, but I don't wanna go to sleep, babe." Swift U.K. garage soundtracks Smith's chance romantic encounter on "Little Things." More compelling from a lyrical perspective is the greater number of inward-looking songs. Cinematic opener "Try Me," the darkly shimmering "She Feels," and the floating "Backwards" all come from a post-fame perspective but aren't so specific that they can't relate to the average person navigating early adulthood. ~ Andy Kellman