Don’t Leave Me in the Rain

Originally released in Johannesburg in 1991 and now reissued by the Warm / Re: Warm crew, Small’s Don’t Leave me in the Rain is quintessential early 90s South Africa, mixing house, bubblegum, and R&B. The production is a little slicker than a lot of music from that era, and the arrangements are superb: infectious basslines, joyous keys, and choral, gospel-like vocals (especially on “Happy Song”, one of the standouts) make this an uplifting listen. Many tracks on here are soulful, mid tempo jams, but there are some dancefloor bangers too, like the massive “Make My Life”. The sound is sweet and positive, but there is a political edge too (inevitable given when and where it was made), which is most explicit on “Let’s Stop The Fire”, where Small calls for an end to the violence which enveloped South Africa at the time.