Sault – Chapter 1

Albumreview

Three albums in less than a year. Acts of Faith at Christmas 2024, 10 at Easter 2025, and now Chapter 1 in early January 2026. The British collective led by producer Inflo and his wife Cleo Sol is working overtime. The question arises: is this artistic drive or something else entirely?

The elephant in the room is called Little Simz. The Mercury Prize winner – now a bona fide British superstar – sued her childhood friend Inflo last year for 1.7 million pounds in unpaid loans. Money she lent him partly to finance SAULT’s only live show to date, in December 2023 at London’s Drumsheds. As a result, Simz couldn’t pay her tax bill and incurred interest and penalties. In interviews, she spoke of ‘frustration and hurt’ and on her album Lotus she bluntly called Inflo a ‘devil in disguise’. She discarded four albums she had made with him. The split from her producer forced her into a complete artistic recalibration.

Against this backdrop, SAULT’s production frenzy takes on a different meaning. Are these the final contractual obligations? Does Forever Living Originals, Inflo’s label, urgently need cash flow? Or does the title Chapter 1 truly mark a new beginning – perhaps even without the man behind the controls?

The album itself certainly sounds phenomenal once again. The production – featuring contributions from legends Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the architects behind Janet Jackson’s greatest hits – is lush and warm. Strings, horns and backing vocalists create a sound reminiscent of Sade’s Love Deluxe, but infused with gospel and spiritual mantras. If you appreciate the warm, organic soul of D’Angelo’s Voodoo or Erykah Badu’s Baduizm, you’ll find kindred spirits here.

Cleo Sol’s velvet voice remains the beating heart. On ‘God, Protect Me from My Enemies’, she sings the title phrase until it transforms into a meditative pulse. ‘Protector’ builds a call-and-response around the line ‘You are my protector, and I’m your survivor’ – protection as established fact, not supplication. The power of repetition is SAULT’s trademark, and it still works. ‘Love Does Not Equal Pain’ repeats its title perhaps fifteen times, yet through Sol’s nuances and subtle instrumental shifts, it never feels tiresome.

The strongest track is the title song ‘Chapter 1’, where Sol playfully snaps at her opponents that they’re ‘losers’ jealous of her success. It sounds like a childish taunt, but in her mouth it becomes something else – a sung middle finger without bitterness. ‘Lord Have Mercy’ is the emotional highlight: a slow-burning expanse of symphonic strings and melancholic acoustic guitar, with a twangy electric guitar that seems to stalk through the midnight streets.

But there are caveats. The motivational numbers – ‘Fulfil Your Spirit’, ‘Good Things Will Come After the Pressure’, ‘Create Your Prophecy’, ‘Don’t Worry About What You Can’t Control’ – feel like variations on the same theme after thirteen albums. The religious messages grow increasingly emphatic, alienating listeners outside that context. Some critics already called predecessor 10 SAULT’s ‘least remarkable record’. That criticism applies here too: the formula is wearing thin.

The music itself sounds like a church service – simple, steady, focused on support rather than complexity. That’s not necessarily a criticism; these songs aren’t meant for radio but for private use: driving, walking, lying in bed before a difficult day. The arrangements give Cleo Sol all the space she needs, not as individual testimony but as a voice for the collective.

The question lingers: what does Inflo want with this deluge of releases? The mystique surrounding SAULT has been tarnished by the lawsuit and Little Simz’s revelations. We now know that the anonymous collective revolves mainly around one man and his wife, and that this man is in financial trouble. The romance of ‘no interviews, no photos, just the music’ acquires a cynical aftertaste when that music possibly serves to pay off debts.

Yet: those seeking musical solace will still find a warm embrace here. The production quality is impeccable, Cleo Sol sings beautifully, and tracks like ‘Lord Have Mercy’ and ‘Protector’ resonate despite everything. Perhaps that’s enough. Perhaps the beginning of the end is sometimes still worth experiencing.

(7.0/10) (Forever Living Originals)

Written by Jan Vranken