Every Noname album is an event. Partly because she doesn’t release music frequently (Sundial is her first album in 5 years following the excellent Room 25), and there’s always some kind of controversy around her. She’s a socialist, that much is clear, and is always critical of the economic and political systems around us. A lot of commentary around her political and social views are criticisms of her hypocrisy around them, things she raises numerous times throughout this new album. I love how unapologetic she is about her art and artistry, and doesn’t shy away from either telling people to shut the fuck up or take accountability for her actions. This is what, to me, makes Sundial a triumphant body of work.

I can obviously comment on the elephant in the room, which the inclusion of Jay Electronica’s verse on “balloons”, but I won’t be able to say anything new on the matter that hadn’t been said a thousand times before. I’m not educated enough on Jewish history to question or condemn what’s being said, but I also think the reactive, Twitter-outrage is a bit excessive (though that Zelenskyy line wasn’t it). Noname isn’t responsible for Jay’s thoughts and words, and the focus should be on keeping her accountable for what she says and does, not other people. But anyways, I really just wanted to say, this album is really, really good. From the incredible production throughout, handled by a plethora of producers including Daoud, Saba, Yussef Dayes, emil, R-Kay among others, to Noname’s sharp lyricism, this is her most concise and defined project to date. She always takes accountability and acknowledges that she’s just like everyone else. On the beautiful and reflective “black mirror”, she closes that song off with “Motion sick, driftin’ in and out of consciousness like the rappers do / She a rapper too”, putting herself in the same category as everyone else. On “namesake”, she calls out Jay-Z, Rihanna, Beyonce and Kendrick for performing at the Superbowl and organisations that are representative of capitalism’s ills and evils, yet states “Go, Noname, go / Coachella stage got sanitized / I said I wouldn’t perform for them / And somehow I still fell in line”. I love this because it shows self-awareness and a willingness to acknowledge her own downfalls before calling out others. “beauty supply” is a gorgeous track about the importance of helping black businesses. Shoutout to R-Kay on production and Ayeisha Raquel on backing vocals, two talented London-based artists I know personally, and I’m psyched for them. “toxic” is a song about a toxic relationship, with her talking about the colorism she’s faced while being with other people. “gospel?” featuring $ilkmoney, billy woods and STOUT is an incredible track. $ilkmoney’s bars “This mean G-O-D givin’ orders directly / Gainin’ obsessive decadence, gettin’ over depressions / Gifted open develop while givin’ hope in these lessons / I tend to spoken aggressions” are incredible, while billy woods raps on a drumless beat about Zimbabwe’s War of Independence, a beautifully reflective and educational verse on what it was like. “oblivion” featuring Common and Ayoni is an incredible closer to the album. With fiery second Noname verse and the incredible Common verse to the gorgeous beat, it’s an incredibly detailed and lush track that closes out the themes of the album perfectly.

On the whole, it’s an exceptional body of work that showcases Noname’s improved skills on the mic, and her vision creating a soulful body of work that is triumphant, self-critiquing and incredibly poignant throughout its 30 minute runtime. It’s her best project to date, and one that further cements her as one of the most complete hip-hop artists making music today, in my opinion. Go support and listen to Sundial below!