Review: EZRA COLLECTIVE - "Here Because of Hope"

«Here Because of Hope», Ezra Collective’s fourth album, crosses Africa, the Caribbean and London between dub, afrobeat, soul and jazz.

I needed a record like this, the fourth sonic seal of Ezra Collective. From the title: «Here Because of Hope», here for hope. Hope about the world, about music, about the possibility that the two things are somehow still together.

The result is a boldly thought-out, immediate and intensely rhythmic hour. The band continues to push the fringes of contemporary British jazz while staying within its roots: the community, the spirituality, the collective energy that have defined it since its inception.

The album is conceived in three spiritual and geographical movements, from Africa to the Caribbean to the streets of London, within a mixture of dub, Afrobeat, soul and jazz that holds together the bar of the journey and the story.

It is Ezra Collective themselves who describe the album as a leap of maturity:

Our first records seemed like the less mature Ezra Collective, while this seems like the adult Ezra Collective record.”

they declared, describing the album as a journey from pain to joy in which the connecting word is hope. It’s a declaration of intent, a strong statement that the album, when you listen to it, almost always tries to honour.

The first single, Only Loveis the band’s first collaboration with Pa Salieu: a meeting between two worlds that share the same diasporic matrix and the same use of rhythm as narrative material, built on grooves of West African ancestry and euphoric horns.

Around Only Love the album lines up a series of appearances that should be read as an index of the band’s ambitions rather than a simple list of guests: the extracts read by the actress Letitia Wright, the collaborations with Lila Iké, Leona Lewis and Libianca.

The rest of the story surrounding the release tells of a band that in the last ten years has become a point of reference for its generation, and not just for jazz. Awards and recognitions confirm that the leap in the public had already occurred even before this album: «Here Because of Hope» definitively certifies it.

Compared to its predecessor «Dance, No One’s Looking», released in 2024 and written for the dancefloor, this album is more reflective and relaxed, but it remains unmistakably Ezra Collective: the same energy, spent with more calculation.

The underlying issue remains, the one that the title itself poses: whether hope holds or whether it remains just a utopia. In the end the album reconciled me, and it doesn’t matter which one it is: Ezra Collective write it as a groove rather than a slogan.

TO LISTEN NOW

Only Love feat. Pa Salieu – Well Organized feat. Lila Iké – All I Need feat. Leona Lewis

TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY

An hour that brings you back to peace with the world.

SCORE: Score 8.00

TRACKLIST

1. Part 1 (Read by Letitia Wright)
2. Blow Your Trumpet
3. Sweet Echo
4. Don’t Worry
5. Only Love feat. Pa Salieu
6. Someday
7. Part 2 (Read by Letitia Wright)
8. Birdie Sings
9. The Last Stand
10. Well Organized feat. Lila Ike
11. El Corazón
12. Bunny on the Rise
13. Part 3 (Read by Letitia Wright)
14. All I Need feat. Leona Lewis
15. Jubilee Feeling
16. Black Flag
17. Most High feat. Libianca