Albumdata
| Artist | Sault |
| Album | 10 |
| Year of release | 2025 |
Rating
Introduction
On the first day of Christmas 2024 Sault surprised us with the release of their album Acts Of Faith, Sault repeated the modus operandi on April 18, 2025. The latest album by Sault is called 10. And, as was the case with Acts Of Faith, they do it again: move listeners with beautiful soulful music. Music with a universal message that is truly sincere and captivates from start to finish.
Little Simz – Lotus
Little Simz
Following the release of Acts Of Faith, Sault, or better yet mastermind and producer Inflo (real name Dean Cover), got some bad press. On March 17, 2025, word got out that rapper Little Simz had filed a lawsuit in January of that year against her former producer Inflo for a reported debt of £2.2 million. That number contains £1 million for a loan that enabled the Sault performances in London in December 2023.
On February 26, 2025, Little Simz released a first taste to her upcoming album Lotus (which is slated for a May 9, 2025, release), the superb Flood. The conjuring music is accompanied by restrained, yet splashing, lyrics. Maybe it’s too easy to read into things in hindsight, but the lyrics seem to deal with the situation at hand: “Number 1 is play your position / … / Number 2 don’t take it personal / … / Number 3 take care of yourself / … / Number 4 don’t react to a clone / … / Number 5 keep the business away from the family sibling rivalry’s vicious / … / 6 don’t quit”. On March 29, 2015, Simz released the single Free, a significant title.
On April 18, 2025, (coincidentally?) the release date for the latest Sault album, a Little Simz interview for Billboard was published online. It contains quotes from the new album’s opening song: “I’m lucky that I got out now / It’s a shame I really feel sorry for your wife / … / This person I’ve known my whole life / Coming like a devil in disguise” (Sault singer Cleo Sol is married to Inflo). Simz talks about the fact the her new album was her fifth attempt at making an album. The previous 4 were all made with Inflo, but “They were great, but it’s more the situation of who I made them with. In letting go of that relationship, I had to let go of that music… It’s like having a kid with someone; you might split with the person, but you don’t just stop loving the kid.”
Apparently Sault’s management team has admitted that there ia a debt, but it hasn’t been resolved yet. The whole ordeal is not great advertising for producer Inflo and Sault.
The buildup
In the meantime no information from Sault and/or Cleo Sol. The collective (?) keeps quiet and does what it always does. Release music in a cryptic fashion. With a number of tweets and Instagram posts the arrival of a new album was announced.
Op April 9, 2025, the first message was published. The text “……….” was accompanied by an image which turned out to be the album cover for 10. A day later 3 posts were published, all containing songs.
On April 15 and 17, 2025, another 2 songs were posted, bringing the total to 5 songs, which equals half the album.
Without any further announcement the new Sault album 10 was released on April 18, 2025, to all streaming services. On the Sault online store the pre-sale for a vinyl release started up as well. The vinyl release will be shipped in July 2025.
Sault – 10
Review
Many of the songs address “healing”, in the broadest sense of the word. Belief in one-self, trust, faith and (obtaining) self-knowledge are the main Sault messages on this album. The music is more up-tempo than before, even though there is still room for ballads. Sault is still soulful, but sounds funkier than before. The album feels like it’s a whole, in part due to the album opener and closer being musically, thematically and instrumentally related. Sault is not only a ‘feel’ thing, but, after hearing this album, it’s also a ‘dance’ thing.
There is no other group around that is able to make this music without it getting tiresome and predictable. And, Sault keeps operating as a collective. No egos, no individual celebrities, everything is geared towards the music itself. And once again the music is of an unapproachable level.
N.B.
In 2022 the EP 10 was released, which contained the 10:10 minute song Angel.
Songs
All songs written by Sault.
- T.H.
- R.L.
- K.T.Y.W.S.
- P
- I.L.T.S.
- L.U.
- S.I.T.L.
- H.T.T.R.
- W.A.L.
- S.O.T.H.
N.B.:
The likely full titles are (respectively) The Healing, Real Love, Know That You Will Survive, Power, I Love To Sing, Look Up, Sorry It’s Too Late, Higher Than The Rain, We Are Living, Sounds Of The Healing, of which Sorry It’s Too Late is a given, since the title was used in one of the April 10, 2025 posts.
Sault – 10 – Vinyl pre-sale
Musicians
Below the musicians believed to be involved with the album are listed.
- Inflo – piano, keyboards, guitar, bass, vocals
- Cleo Sol – vocals
- Chronixx – vocals
- Pino Palldino – bass
- NIJE – piano
In closing
What’s your take on the latest Sault album? Let me know!
Video/Spotify
This story contains an accompanying video. Click on the following link to see it: Video: Sault – 10. The A Pop Life playlist on Spotify has been updated as well.
