What to know | Recovering from Stroke, Michael Kiwanuka Announces New Album — Self-Produced 'FUDGE' Captures His Pre-Illness Playfulness
The key details: Michael Kiwanuka has confirmed he suffered a stroke earlier this year and is currently in recovery, while simultaneously announcing his first self-produced album in 13 years, 'FUDGE,' set for release on October 23, capturing his creative state before the illness struck.
Choosing not to shy away this time, Michael Kiwanuka announced his stroke and his new album in the same post. Writing on Instagram, he shared that he'd been battling health issues over the past few months that would keep him from making music for a long time to come—before revealing that the illness was a stroke caused by a brain hemorrhage, itself triggered by high blood pressure, leaving his brain "quite badly" damaged, with a long road of rehabilitation ahead before he can even consider returning to the stage.
This also explains why he cancelled all his remaining shows last summer. At the time, his team cited an "ongoing condition" combined with doctor's orders as the reason he had to pull out of multiple festivals including All Together Now, Sziget, Pukkelpop, We Out Here, and Victorious, as well as being forced to withdraw from dates supporting Mumford & Sons on their North American tour. He has now confirmed that all live performance plans remain on indefinite hold.
But in that same post, he unveiled 'FUDGE'—his fifth studio album, and his first fully self-produced work in 13 years. Written almost concurrently with 2024's 'Small Changes,' the album was completed but then shelved for nearly a year before finally getting its release date—meaning the entire production process took place before his health issues began.
"I had to do it differently this time, otherwise there was no reason to make this album," he said. "Every song had to have this unthinking, cathartic feeling at some point, like someone else was making the record." He also explained the album's title: "When you think of the word fudge, it feels playful and childlike, which is good for creativity... but at the same time it's also a euphemism, and what it really means is 'I'm just going to go and do it.'"
The album is bookended by two companion tracks—opener "Summer Clothes" and closer "Swings And Roundabouts"—both grappling with the anxiety of stepping away from longtime collaborators to create alone. "It sounds like a breakup song," he said of "Summer Clothes." "It's me knowing that this creative relationship I'm in now isn't going to last forever, and that I have to find my own way. So what happens next? A big part of this album is working through that question." Meanwhile, the seven-minute "Love In My Heart" is what he describes as the "epiphany moment" of making this record.
Full Tracklist and Release Details
'FUDGE' is set for release on October 23, with a 12-track lineup: "Summer Clothes," "California," "Just Another Moment," "Drowning In Your Heart," "Love In My Heart," "Across The Sky," "Stars," "You Sent Me Flying," "Move In My Direction," "Steve's Paradise," "Sing," and "Swings And Roundabouts."
This album follows directly on from 'Small Changes,' released in November 2024, when he reunited with longtime collaborators Danger Mouse and Inflo. NME's four-star review called that album "soul music with flesh and blood on its bones," writing that "its soft-touch approach does nothing to diminish the weight of Kiwanuka's overdue comeback." By contrast, 'FUDGE' is the product of him deliberately stepping away from those longtime partners to face the creative process alone—only this time, listeners will have to wait until his post-illness recovery period to finally hear the album he completed before he ever got sick.
