London artist Reginald Omas Mamode IV had been releasing music for a couple years before releasing his self-titled debut album in 2016. Since that time, he’s been honing his skills and further carving out a niche for himself with a couple of albums, EPs, and singles. Now, three years after his last album, Where Are We Going?, Mamode is back with an ambitious fourth album, Stand Strong.

As you might infer from the title of the album, Stand Strong is Mamode’s love letter and inspirational message to the African Diaspora. Over the course of the album, Mamode is drawing upon blues, jazz, spirituals, funk, hip hop, and African rhythms as he writes, plays, and sings about the collective experience of African people across the globe. Now, this can be a lot to take on, but Mamode finds a few ways to bring the music and message together in a coherent and focused way. Number one is that Mamode mostly just tries to stick to his own perspective in terms of lyricism. He can connect the dots to bigger picture issues, but it’s mostly his lived experience, along with his personal hopes, dreams, and fears as a Black man in the UK that shape his words. So when he talks about slavery, immigration, or economic oppression, he’s talking about his own familial history and making the issue hit home in the literal sense. The other way in which Mamode focuses the album musically is that the compositions are focused between drums and Fender Rhodes. Obviously, there is more instrumentation as the songs call for it, whether it be bass, guitar, strings, samples, or anything else, but the drums and Rhodes are where the music is being built out from. This keeps the music grounded, and while Mamode can still take his compositions in a lot of different directions, it never feels like he’s trying to bite off too much at once. When you bring all of this together, you end up with a sound and subject matter that falls somewhere in between Gil-Scott Heron & Brian Jackson, D’Angelo, and Georgia Anne Muldrow. There’s a strong jazz foundation filtered through a hip hop lens, and a great balance between personal and political lyricism.

Stand Strong could have easily become a well-meaning mess in lesser hands. Fortunately, Reginald Omas Mamode IV is such a skilled musician who has found confidence in his own artistic voice. As a result, we get treated to one of the most beautiful, soulful, and unique albums of the year. Stand Strong such a complete album from top to bottom, you’ll discover something new each time you listen and have even more respect for the care and craft that went into the project.