It’s hard to gain a footing amid the scattershot divergence of Rodney Smith’s latest addition to the UK hip hop canon. Now 39, the man better known as Roots Manuva resembles an artist as hungry, active and downright desperate as ever on 4everevolution. There’s the spectral bass pulses of cuts like Here We Go Again, the cavernous dub bounce of Who Goes There? and reflective dream-pop on the lovely Wha’Mek. This isn’t a seamless classic; it’s the sound of an artist with more ambition, ideas, sadness, fear and joy in his heart than ever. By Dan Rule.

Big Dada/Inertia