Ezra Collective - Here Because of Hope [2LP Blue]

Ezra Collective's fourth album Here Because of Hope spreads across two blue vinyl records, and it is their most ambitious statement yet, a three-part story of Black music crossing oceans.

Following a Mercury Prize and a Brit Award for Group of the Year, the London quintet set out to explore why so much music born from pain sounds so joyful. The answer became three movements, tracing roots from West Africa through the Caribbean to the UK, each introduced by a spoken passage read by actor Letitia Wright. Recorded largely in a week-long session in southern France, it debuted at number one on the UK albums chart.

Femi Koleoso's drums and TJ Koleoso's bass lock into grooves that shift with each region, while Joe Armon-Jones's keys and the horns of James Mollison and Ife Ogunjobi soar on top. "Only Love" brings in Pa Salieu, "Well Organised" welcomes Lila Iké, and "All I Need" features Leona Lewis, while "Jubilee Feeling" lives up to its name.

It is joyous and deeply danceable, yet it never loses sight of the history underneath, and the band's famous live energy comes through in every take.

Seventeen tracks over four sides make this the fullest way to hear a band at the very top of their game.