Cleo Sol Returns With Soulful Care Package ‘Mother’

Following the universally adored Rose In The Dark, Cleo Sol is back with an album that challenges its predecessor’s supremacy. Mother arrived over the weekend and adds to an extraordinarily stellar run from the West Londoner who’s been a beacon in British soul (and R&G) since the 2000s.

This year alone, Sol has made standout appearances on Little Simz’s “Woman” and played a major role in SAULT’s critically acclaimed projects. Now back on her own path, Mother is a deeply personal collection that explores, as the title suggests, motherhood, as well as the value in finding support networks in tumultuous times.

Cleo’s own mother has been an ever-present influence on her music from day one (even the ‘Sol’ part of her name was taken as tribute to her mother’s Spanish heritage) and that was particularly true on 2019’s “Sweet Blue”. Two years later and Cleo herself has just become a mother, an experience she describes as “the most transformative, uplifting, heart melting, strength giving experience thus far that led me to write this album.”

Bridging the gap between her mother’s lessons, her own experiences and everything she wants to pass on to her own child, all of this is poured into the new album. Bringing that to life with the production, her long-standing collaborator Inflo calls on the spirit of ‘70s and ‘80s soul and ties it to the present day for a sound that’s genuinely timeless.