And Then Life Was Beautiful

On 2018’s Saturn, Neo Jessica Joshua further broadened her sound (self-described neatly as “wonky funk”), exploring fame, spirituality and romantic turbulence through a luminous astrological lens. The problem that beset preparations for studio album three in November 2019, therefore, was fairly ironic. “I just didn’t have any space,” Joshua—better known as Nao—tells Apple Music. “My own studio in East London is really, really small. So I hired a bigger space and invited loads of musicians and friends down just to jam and create and make interesting ideas.” Within 10 days, the nucleus of And Then Life Was Beautiful had formed, followed by periods of creative tinkering sparked by the unsettling (a pandemic) and utterly joyous (the birth of her daughter, in spring 2020). Fittingly, the final album honours change in all aspects (including breakups—a subject tapped into majestically on tracks including “Messy Love”, “Glad That You’re Gone” and “Good Luck”) and triumphantly toasts femininity (see the Lianne La Havas duet “Woman”). It’s an album that bears its creative and personal liberation and wisdom well—bolstered by spoken-word interludes from UK poet Sophia Thakur.