That Inflo and Cleo Sol are behind SAULT is now an open secret that no one cares about anymore, and that's okay.
Because the real news, in this 2026, is not who they are, but how they still manage to make us feel less alone. With “Chapter 1”, the British collective releases yet another surprise album, a scant half hour of music that hits where it's needed: between the stomach and the spine.
Scaffolding is essential. No Hollywood strings or bloated productions: here the rules are dry drums that seem to measure your heartbeat, an acoustic guitar that scratches and a taste for early rock 'n' roll that smells of dust and truth.
SAULT's trick is magical in its simplicity: they take a phrase, a request for help or a hope, and repeat it until it becomes a mantra.
When Cleo Sol sings «The power that they call strengthens me / God protect me from my enemies» at the opening, she is not doing an exercise in style. He is reciting a secular prayer for all of us who wake up anxious to face the day. Words stop being text and become rhythm, vibration, shield.
It's a proudly anti-radio record. You won't find the pandering chorus from the charts, but songs designed for private, almost therapeutic use. It's music to listen to in the car on the way home from work or lying in bed when you need to put the pieces back together. Of course, at times the religious insistence can seem a little heavy, a little too “church-like”, but Cleo Sol's voice is a magnet that holds the whole building upright without ever slipping.
“Chapter 1” is not an album to review, it is an album to wear. SAULT continues to do the only thing that matters: turning soul into a survival kit for the present.
SCORE: 8.00
TO LISTEN NOW
Protector – Love Does Not Equal Pain – Puppet
TO BE SKIPPED IMMEDIATELY
Just over half an hour of high quality music
