It is a sticky, sweltering July afternoon, and I have accidentally found myself at a wake with Jorja Smith. I’m told that the pub where we have met, in the leafiest part of leafy south-west London, is usually a safe bet for an inconspicuous table. But today, sweaty black suits carrying pints drift between tables, and long queues snake round the bar.
Dressed in a simple tank top, bare-faced with her hair scraped back, Smith is waiting for me when I arrive. When her alcohol-free sparkling wine finally arrives, she takes one sip, pauses for the waitress to disappear, then winces theatrically. It’s hard to imagine a less appropriate setting in which to discuss an album made for sunburnt block parties and 2am raves.
What Are the Odds, the 29-year-old’s third album, released this week, is a certified, old-fashioned ass-shaker. Made with Richard Isong – the London producer better known as P2J, whose credits include Beyoncé, Burna Boy and Tems – and featuring the likes of Wizkid and Devlin, it is a vibrant collage of Black British dance music, weaving together UK garage, funky house, 2-step and Afrobeats, into a 12-track collection that pulsates from top to bottom. While dance music has always been threaded through Smith’s catalogue, usually in the form of a summer single – On My Mind in 2017, Little Things in 2023 – she is better known for her introspective, soulful R&B, as epitomised by her 2016 breakout single Blue Lights (which NME praised as “a fantastically introspective and clever piece of songwriting”, and had critics declaring her Amy Winehouse’s successor).
This is the first time she has committed fully to the dancefloor. It’d be nice to hear more of my stuff when I’m outside.” The genesis of this album was different to her previous records. Her Mercury prize-nominated debut album, Lost & Found, emerged because she felt it was time to make an album.
Its successor, Falling Or Flying, arrived because she felt she “needed” a second one. What Are the Odds was made almost accidentally, which is perhaps why it feels so light on its feet. After making the effervescent club single Little Things with P2J, the pair initially planned to write a dance EP.
But the songs kept coming, and the project outgrew itself. I left and went straight to my label and said: ‘I think this is an album, not an EP. This is serious.’ I’m so excited about it.” The album may be created for the dancefloor, but its emotional resonance remains unmistakably Smith.
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