When Something About April II was released in January 2016, Adrian Younge was on a roll. He had produced a great album for Souls of Mischief (There Is Only Now) and produced what might be Bilal's best album (In Another Life). Additionally, the multi-instrumentalist's work was the source of the samples of the solid PRhyme album and he also worked on two albums with Ghostface.
The first Something About April was a good, albeit, unspectacular, soul album. The album was psychedelic soul with lots of fuzz guitar, very live-sounding drums, and keys. Something About April II continues in the same vein, with Younge bringing along Bilal, Karolina, Loren Oden, Raphael Saadiq, and, crucially, the hypnotizing voice of Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab fame.
It's a joy to hear Sadier in a psychedelic soul atmosphere and it works surprisingly well considering that Stereolab sounds absolutely nothing like this. Every single Sadier track is a highlight, but "Step Beyond", where she is joined by Bilal and "Memories of War", which has a great eerie harpsichord, stand out in particular. All of the other singers are great too, with Loren Oden giving an extremely powerful, soulful performance on "Sandrine". The instrumental tracks are also well done, with the strings of "Sea Motet" giving the track a very vintage and cool old-school Blaxploitation movie vibe. Something About April II is a notable step up in quality from its predecessor - a great album.
