NO THANK YOU

Product Information

Freshly reissued on vinyl for 2023 by Forever Living Originals, NO THANK YOU provides plenty of paths forward for this distinct voice. These musical touches were compared to works from David Axelrod and Charles Stepney, though "without ever seeming like straightforward homage. In 2021, Little Simz released her previous studio album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert, which became her first album to place in the top-ten of the UK Album Chart (at number four), and was ranked one of the best music releases of 2021 by critics. Sleek, succinct and utterly propulsive, it's Simz' defiantly punk rock, two fingered salute to conformity and fame, and all the expectations and restrictions that come with. Hip Hop Golden Age staff compared the release with Simz's previous two studio albums, saying the " neo soul direction" of No Thank You lands somewhere between the "short and punchy" energy of Grey Area, and the "sprawling and grandiose" nature of Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

The album alludes to challenges faced releasing music with a tone of self-reflection but this album feels stronger than ever, with her talent shining through each track on the album despite the obstacles and healing that took place. we hear the struggles that came with killing her ego, navigating a male-dominated rap industry, and how her love affiliations have been difficult to manage while staying embedded in her faith. NPR named "Gorilla" the 100th best song of 2022, saying how Simz "displays command of her punchy rhymes with a cadence so casual it feels as if she could deliver them in her sleep. David Smyth of Evening Standard said Little Simz and Inflo are "still innovating at a skyscraping level".

First released on streaming services back in December, Little Simz fifth album, No Thank You, finally makes it onto CD. Emma Wilkes from NME noted how these songs are "combined with visuals that present the rapper as a giant presiding over a flock and delivering her lines before a crowd of wealthy observers. It was released on 12 December 2022 through the independent label Forever Living Originals after being announced less than a week prior. If 2021’s Sometimes I Might Be Introvert catapulted Simz into the big leagues, crashing into the top 5 of the albums charts, collecting Mercury Music Prize, Mobo, Ivor Novello and Brit Award wins and earning her the biggest live audiences yet in the UK and Europe yet, NO THANK YOU is yet another delicious left field turn for 29-year old Simbiatu Ajikawo.

On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised score out of 100 to ratings from publications, the album received a weighted mean score of 86 based on 13 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". On the minimalist album opener, "Angel", Simz analyses her rise to stardom with a " Prince-style pun" on master ownership. Gorilla” was a track that really grew on me, it reminds me of her incredible stage presence during her live performances; of being at ease like she’s always been destined to be there. Albania, Algeria, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan Republic, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas), Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon Republic, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Croatia, Republic of the Congo, Reunion, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Kitts-Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Vietnam, Virgin Islands (U. Often, NO THANK YOU sounds like a SAULT record fronted by Simz—see the gospel swells on “Broken,” or the slick, cool-as-fuck, plucked-bass bop of “Gorilla”—not only because of the palette of satin strings and funky drums, but because of the charming confidence and faith in collaboration that seep through, as they do on all of SAULT’s transformative records.

Larisha Paul from Rolling Stone felt that "Throughout the film, Simz settles into a lead role surrounded by other Black performers to not only reject praise provided by external validation, but also reject the harmful myth of the strong Black women that more often than not erases the sympathy of human struggle by discrediting emotions that don't line up with the preconceived narrative prescribed to them. It features a "wall of percussion" resembling "a marching band, West African drumming and rolling breakbeats". On 10 December 2022, Simz revealed the album's release date, track list, cover art (shot by Karolina Wielocha), and producer (Inflo).