Lahai (album)

On 28 June 2023, Sampha released "Spirit 2.0" as the album's lead single, his first solo track in over six years.[3] On 24 August, he announced the album and its title.[2] He explained the album's title, writing:

Lahai

My grandfather's name

My middle name

My next musical chapter

My next album

Fever Dreams. Continuums. Dancing. Generations. Syncopation. Bridges. Grief. Motherlands. Love. Spirit. Fear. Flesh. Flight.

On 6 September, he released the album's second single, "Only".[1] In September 2023, the Lahai Tour was announced in support of the album, beginning on 29 October 2023 in San Francisco and ending on 7 December 2023 in Paris.[1]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.7/10[4]
Metacritic	89/100[5]
Review scores
Source	Rating
The Guardian	[6]
The Line of Best Fit	9/10[7]
Mojo	[8]
DIY	[9]
Paste	8.3/10[10]
AllMusic	[11]
Beats Per Minute	87/100[12]
Under the Radar	[13]

Upon release, Lahai received widespread acclaim from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from mainstream critic reviews, the album received a score of 89 out of 100, indicating "universal acclaim".[5] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave the album an 8.7 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[4] The Guardian's Alexis Petridis named it his album of the week and called it "jittery with anxiety and indecision, yet poised and luscious". Petridis wrote that the fact Sampha made another album instead of sticking to songwriting and "made an album as intriguing and affecting as Lahai – is worth celebrating".[6] Mojo described it as "less introspective and far from lonely, its persuasive positivity carried by a contained riot of euphoric synths, swelling violins, Chic guitars and skittering percussion".[8]

Reviewing the album for The Line of Best Fit, Riley Moquin called Sampha "a generational talent who has once again delivered a rich, emotional work for us to process" and described the album as "phenomenal" as its "remarkable second half pulls together the record as an expressionist painting of life's cyclical nature".[7] Elizabeth Braaten of Paste summarised Lahai as "a transformative album that explores themes like afrofuturism and magical realism across 14 tracks that span a multitude of genres", also finding it to be "as intimate as it is imaginative".[10] Rob Hakimian of Beats Per Minute praised the "dueling forces" in the album's themes, ranging from freedom, time, memory and grief.[12] The novella Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a major theme in the album, drawing praise from Under the Radar's Ben Jardine, writing that "The tale is an allegory for Sampha’s own journey of self-discovery, of the initial limitations the world may place upon us, and how our tireless efforts to push those limitations may earn us criticism and self-doubt, but eventually, belonging, peace, and understanding."[13] Writing for DIY, Chris Taylor concludes writing "Sampha’s voice might be the most instantly recognizable piece of magic in his arsenal, but it’s his patience and craft that makes ‘LAHAI’ such a stunning experience."[9]

Notes

• ^{^[c]} signifies a co-producer.
• ^{^[a]} signifies an additional producer.

Musicians

Technical

• Matt Colton – mastering
• David Wrench – mixing
• Ben Baptie – engineering
• Billy Halliday – engineering
• Chloe Beth Smith – engineering
• David Rodriguez – engineering
• Jamie McElvoy – engineering
• Kirkis – engineering
• Ricky Damian – engineering
• Andrea Mastroiacovo – engineering assistance
• Ben Loveland – engineering assistance
• Claude Vause – engineering assistance