Kwabs, Love + War - Album review: Slow and steady has proved the right way to go

Kwabs’s debut album has been a long time coming, its eagerly-anticipated release delayed and delayed, presumably to allow him to capitalise on his success across Europe (the single “Walk” topped the charts in Germany, Hungary and Romania). So if it seems years since his EP interpretations of songs by James Blake and Corinne Bailey Rae first attracted attention, that’s because it literally is; and it’s now almost five years since Kwabs performed as part of Goldie’s Band: By Royal Appointment talent contest. Which is an uncommonly long time, in this era of accelerating musical immediacy, to spend preparing your debut album – especially given that Kwabena Adjepong had already been lead singer with the National Youth Jazz Orchestra for three years before that.