Ezra Collective Announce Fourth Album 'Here Because Of Hope' With Pa Salieu Collaboration Only Love
Friday, 29 May 2026
Written by Jon Stickler
Ezra Collective have announced their fourth studio album.
The Mercury Prize and BRIT-winning London jazz group will release 'Here Because Of Hope' on September 18 via Partisan. Comprising 17 tracks, it features excerpts read by BAFTA-winning actor Letitia Wright, as well as contributions from Lila Iké, Leona Lewis and Libianca. The band said:
"It feels like our first records were really Ezra Collective as children; this one really feels like Ezra Collective as adults."
"There’s been so many moments of joy, so many moments of excitement, but at the same time, it’s impossible not to look at the world and feel deep pain and sadness, and we were really determined to write an album that still sees the prominent importance and final destination being joy, but also recognises the pain and the momentary difficulties that people are facing.
"This album is the journey from that pain to joy, and the connective word in the middle is hope. We hope that this album makes people dance, we hope it makes people cry. There are stories woven into every single fabric of the record, and those stories [are] most eloquently put by five adults that met as children."
The band have also shared the new single Only Love featuring Pa Salieu, which blends jazz, Afrobeat rhythms and rap. Ezra Collective leader Femi Koleoso explained: "Pa Salieu has been a musician that we have long admired in Ezra Collective. Not just because of his incredible lyricism and storytelling but also his ability to weave in his Gambian heritage and roots into such a distinctly UK sound.
"In 2024, we had the beautiful moment playing at Wembley Arena, looking out into the crowd and seeing Pa Salieu dancing and partying with his friends and in that moment, I had the very thought we need to make a song together for this kind of setting.
"I spent some time studying West African music, studying Gambian music, and let that influence the bassline of this track and the drumbeat.
"We linked up with Pa in Wood Green and immediately his stories started to flow. He came with a bunch of lyrics that he had from a really hard time he went through, but in those lyrics were so many stories of pain but also beauty, joy and love, and we were trying to find that beautiful place in the middle of those two things, and that’s how we came about this song."
Fresh from an appearance at BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend last Sunday, where they performed Only Love with Salieu live, Ezra Collective have a series of European dates scheduled for the summer, including headline sets at Love Supreme Festival in East Sussex and Lost Village in Lincolnshire. They'll also play LA Jazz Festival in August and the new twin-city festival Move My Way in Sydney and Melbourne in October.
They released their third album, 'Dance, No One’s Watching', in 2024. More recently, they contributed the song Helicopters featuring Greentea Peng to the all-star 'HELP(2)' charity album for War Child, released in March.
'Here Because Of Hope' tracklist:
1. Part 1 (read by Letitia Wright)
2. Blow Your Trumpet
3. Sweet Echo
4. Don’t Worry
5. Only Love [feat. Pa Salieu]
6. Someday
7. Part 2 (read by Letitia Wright)
8. Birdie Sings
9. The Last Stand
10. Well Organised [feat. Lila Iké]
11. El Corazón
12. Bunny On The Rise
13. Part 3 (read by Letitia Wright)
14. All I Need [feat. Leona Lewis]
15. Jubilee Feeling
16. Black Flag
17. Most High’ [feat. Libianca]
Ezra Collective Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows
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