During 2021, the year she released the intermediate and mostly downcast
Be Right Back EP,
Jorja Smith moved back to her native Walsall after determining that London -- where she had moved to establish her career -- was not the place for her. The return enabled her to slow down in a familiar setting as she made the true follow-up to
Lost & Found, her Mercury Prize-nominated album debut. Created primarily with
Barbara Boko-Hyouyhat and
Edith Nelson, an emergent Walsallian duo known as
DAMEDAME*,
Falling or Flying also involves, in roughly one-third of its tracks,
P2J -- a versatile producer known for his work with
Beyonce,
Wizkid, and
Burna Boy -- showing that the still-independent
Smith can attract high-profile collaborators as if she were a major-label flagship act. The complete turnover of collaborators and her retreat from the spotlight result in a fresh progression from
Lost & Found that sees
Smith examine herself, her relationships, and the ways she herself is scrutinized. Compared to the debut, the songs are a little tighter in structure, communicate more, and bounce from style to style -- whereas
Lost & Found presented an evolved, commercially minded brand of street soul -- with introspective R&B always somewhere in the mix. The farthest deviation is "Go Go Go," a strummy bit of light pop-punk for
Smith to sweep aside a lover with a pouty belligerence she hasn't shown before. Two others seduce in different backdrops. The title song, lush sophisti-pop redolent of
Jessie Ware's
Devotion, sees
Smith suggesting a rendezvous with an implied ellipsis or batting eyelash at the end of "I don't know where you are, but I don't wanna go to sleep, babe." Swift U.K. garage soundtracks
Smith's chance romantic encounter on "Little Things." More compelling from a lyrical perspective is the greater number of inward-looking songs. Cinematic opener "Try Me," the darkly shimmering "She Feels," and the floating "Backwards" all come from a post-fame perspective but aren't so specific that they can't relate to the average person navigating early adulthood. ~ Andy Kellman
