Top Tracks: Samantha Lindo – Little Songbird

Sometimes great things take time. A mighty oak doesn’t spring up overnight, if anything the lengthy journey it takes to grow only adds to its majesty. In an age of instant gratification, songs like ‘Little Songbird’ which take that message to heart are a rare and precious gift. Taken from rising star Samantha Lindo’s forthcoming album Ancestry, this track is a must listen for fans of Michael Kiwanuka. Its dreamy, soft-spoken intro shifts into expressive bass lines and warm soulful vocals, the arrangement gradually growing in scope and elegance before a stirring climax. A swell of strings gives way to a soaring sax solo, in a crescendo like a bird’s first flight; how I imagine that moment between falling and flying must feel. Every moment of the song seems to rise taller that the one that came before. Inspired by the story of her great uncle’s migration to Canada from Jamaica, it carries that same thread of growth in its message. How all fires start from a single spark. How a whole community may stem from one person showing solidarity, a shift in narrative can start with one story being told, and a wider chorus for change all begins with a single voice calling out.