Sault albums
Band Members:
Inflo (multi-instrumentalist, producer), Cleo Sol (vocals), Kid Sister (vocals), Chronixx (vocals), Jack Peñate (multi-instrumentalist)
Biggest Influences:
Stevie Wonder, Parliament/ Funkadelic, Peter Tosh, The Residents, Earth Winde and Fire, Sly and the Family Stone, The Avalanches, Burning Spear, Erykah Badu
2019
Five - 82%
- not really a fifth album, it’s actually their first (and second of 2019)
2020
(Untitled) Black Is - 88%
Sault's music is more necessary than most. It's a music that is timely, urgent, but also made as a conscious effort to just discuss and shout out their ideas of oppression and unity into the world. Its music that speaks to humans in 2020 as a collective people, but also presents us with a mix of African American cultures and ideas that collide and smash together. "Stop Dem" and "Bow" take tribal music as a rally cry of sounds that make people aware of lives they may not have been before; "Hard Life" and "Sorry Ain't Enough" are hard tempered soul ballads that hark back to Lauren Hill and Erykah Badu; "Monsters" and "Wildfires" are playful but also meaningful and full of great melodies that drill their way into your subconscious. Those last two songs alone are some of the best I ever heard.
Sault released two albums this year as well as last year, and at this rate they will keep putting out great music at a rate most artists only dream of. They do not give their names, so little is known about them... they obviously don't care about pop stardom or else "Wildfires" would be the best-known song of the year. Their other album, Rise, is even higher on my list....but this one (Black Is) should not be overlooked, it has 20 songs that weave between shorter interludes and longer single ready ones, and it works brilliantly.
Best Songs: Wildfires, Monsters, Stop Dem, Bow, Miracles
2020
(Untitled) Rise - 97%
2020 has been quite the year and living through it all together as we all have i have been searching for an album that encompassed my mental state as a society. Worldly, we have never been more united in our struggle for empathy and understanding, and our struggle to survive in a world that seems determined to destroy us. I feel i have found that in Sault's Album RISE, their second album this year and a beautiful record full of stories of redemption and pain that every human alive can identify with. I would assume their name “SAULT” is spelled that way since it’s the back end of the word “ASSAULT” and as people we feel constantly threatened with the struggles we face. The music here is not an answer to these struggles, just a commentary track that may open some minds along the way.
The album starts off with “Strong” which recalls The Avalanches with its smooth Neo Soul production and shimmering vocals; what Sault add to the music is a sort of urgent know how, continued in "I Just Want to Dance" which succeeds most songs as it tells us "I just want to dance/ makes me feel alive/ i get so mad/ my people around the world are dying." Each song has a sort of elevation to it, while the former songs speaks to us through "words" songs like "Fearless" and closer "Little Boy" use more mechanical and manufactured means. The result is the same, always perching freedom and equality in the people of Earth. Obviously, the song "Free" in the middle of the record is the focal point- an anthem that calls back to the Soul music of a bygone era and blends it with a West African jamboree; easily one the best songs of the 2020’s so far.
Other influences jump in at random points: Stevie Wonder’s smooth synths in “Son Shine” and Marvin Gaye’s depth of soul in “Scary Times”; the tribal music of the fourth world in “The Beginning and the End” and the militant but glimmering “Street Fighter”; huge homage to Erykah Badu in “Uncomfortable” that adds lyrics from 2020’s headlines about brutality and the BLM movement; “The Black and the Gold” even bringing instrumental music into the fold. Smaller tracks add to the over all ambience, with “Rise” having a soft voice waking us up, “You Know It Aint” talking about what it is like to be Black and in the modern world in a wisecracking way, and “No Black Violins in London”…that’s pretty self-explanatory.
With four albums in two Years, SAULT are a force to be reckoned with. They keep their names private, stating that things like fame and fortune are not important; only the music is. In that way, they take from rock’s other legendary anonymous band, The Residents. The potential for great music to be made by SAULT is unfathomable and gives me hope for the future, which let’s face it, we all needed in 2020.
Best Songs: Free, Street Fighter, Fearless, The Beginning and the End, Little Boy
2021
Nine - 85%
Sault remain one of the most interesting band's around, despite using somewhat of a gimmick for their release this year- the fact the album "disappears" from streaming after 99 days proves to be pintless given the fact that you can just buy it on physical media. But their strange persona as a band intertwines with the poignant music they still make. In a mere eight tracks, the group manages to create on of the most disturbing and haunting tracks of the year ("Fear"), one of the most uplifting soul ballads in a while ("Lights In Your Hands") and the ying/yang takes on life on the streets on London in "Bitter Streets" and "London Gangs".
Producer Diplo and lead Singer Cleo Soul are known by this point to be at the heart of this intriguing collective, and though this year was not as prolific as 2019 or 2020 where Sault released two nearly double albums each year, Nine is an intriguing listen. What people seem to overlook because of the strange stance the album takes on being available to listen to, is the fact that Sault uses contemporary musicians , non musicians talking about their own lives, and classic African rhythms to merge together what life is like in the modern world. Name any artist that does this so well, and makes every sound so smooth. The future is limitless with potential.
Best Songs: Fear, Bitter Streets, London Gangs, Nine
2022
11 - 78%
Sault released 5 albums at once (and 6 total) in 2022, its a bit overwhelming. 11 is the best one I think, reviews coming soon I may combine them all though