Miguel, Brixton Academy, gig review: An endless haze of funk and wild emotion

This man has claim to be the premier R&B artist in the world right now

(Dustin Lewis )

Few things can counter a wintry Tuesday evening in Brixton like the sight of Miguel, dressed discreetly in a white, feathered leather jacket, wrapping his gospel of a post-racial Nirvana in his heady brand of psychedelic rock 'n' roll R&B, making every man in the Brixton Academy promise to do more sit-ups.

The 29-year-old Californian’s captivating two-hour set was punctuated by sermons — one of them balanced precariously on the drum kit — espousing the beauty of difference, on embracing our individuality. “I promise myself never to conform,” he instructed the crowd to chant. “I believe in myself, for ever and ever.


 It was striking, in some moments, how lukewarm Brixton seemed to such a celebratory and uplifting show of racial unity.
 (Dustin Lewis)

“Wildheart,” he called out, a reference to his latest album - “I am free, Wildheart, I am free” - as he broke, gloriously, into the hit What’s Normal Anyway?

It was striking, in some moments, how lukewarm Brixton seemed to such a celebratory and uplifting show of racial unity. Yet Miguel kept going, kept snaking and gyrating his hips, kept pushing his voice further and higher, kept calling on the crowd to come with him and see the light.

His encore, and particularly the sex-fuelled ballad Coffee, unfolded in an endless haze of synth and funk and driving beats and wild emotion. A transcendent performance from an artist who, despite his debts to Prince, has claim to be the premier R&B artist in the world right now.