11 tracks · 34 min
Nao released her debut album, 2016’s For All We Know, to universal acclaim, but it was her 2018 follow-up effort, Saturn, that saw the stars truly align for the Nottingham-born, East London-raised singer-songwriter. Drawing inspiration from the tumult of her first Saturn return—a concept astrologers explain as a transitional life stage that recurs every 27 years or so—the record was a Mercury Prize- and Grammy Award-nominated triumph. Jupiter, the de facto sequel to Saturn, picks up with Nao seven years, two children and one life-changing diagnosis later. Much has changed. “When I wrote Saturn I was in my Saturn return and going through a difficult time because I had gone through a breakup, and then I got an autoimmune condition called chronic fatigue syndrome,” she tells Apple Music. “I became a mother in that time, so that seven- or eight-year period was really difficult because I was ill for most of it. I went on a big healing journey and mostly recovered. And I felt like when I came to make this album and I saw that Jupiter was the planet of joy, growth and good fortune, I was like, ‘You know what? I feel like after everything I’ve been through and come out the other end, I fee…