Today marks a landmark moment for fans of genre-defying powerhouse ESKA, as she unveils the fourth single Daddy Long Legs alongside the long-awaited physical release of her second album The Ordinary Life of a Magic Woman via Earthling Recordings.

Ten years since her Mercury Prize-nominated debut, ESKA returns in full force with a body of work that is bold, mystical, and defiantly personal. The Ordinary Life of a Magic Woman lands on vinyl and CD today, with the digital release to follow on 23rd May.

The Ordinary Life of a Magic Woman is a mirror of ESKA’s life: a first-generation, middle-aged African British woman in post-everything Southeast London, creating in the quiet early hours while raising and home-educating her daughter. The album is a deep dive into the contradictions and magic of everyday existence, with each track sculpted like a canvas, each vocal a brushstroke in her ever-evolving craft.

Having spent the last decade immersed in a kaleidoscope of creative ventures—from scoring theatre and film to collaborating with artists like Esperanza Spalding, Shabaka Hutchings and Kae Tempest, ESKA returns with a work that is entirely her own: a homecoming, a bold proclamation, a spell.

ESKA has chosen to release the album in physical format first, saying “Since the release of my debut solo album ten years ago, I’ve woken up to a transformed music industry. But there are listeners who crave a deeper experience with an artist’s work — people who want to hold the music, immerse themselves in the design, and engage with the full audio-visual storytelling that accompanies the sound. By releasing my music on vinyl first, I’m honouring these listeners, the ones who value craftsmanship and the ritual of experiencing an album in its fullest form. This is about reclaiming control over the narrative of my music and making sure it reaches the right ears in the right way.”

Following the album’s release ESKA will be playing a run of intimate shows, offering a chance to see one of the greatest musicians working today – not only “one of the most important singers in the UK,” as Gilles Peterson rightly put it, but a composer, arranger, conceptualist, actor and much more besides.

Sat 26th April Magic Woman In-store  Hastings (Dark Circles x Afri-co-lab)
Tues 29th April Magic Woman In-store  London (Rough Trade East)
Weds 30th April   Magic Woman In-store  Southampton (Vinilo)
Thurs 1st May  Magic Woman In-store  Bristol (Rough Trade)
Mon 5th May Breakin’ Convention Park Jam, Islington (ESKA solo)
Fri 6th June SXSW London  Tap Room, London

A sonic tapestry of resilience and reinvention, the album blurs boundaries between the mythical and the mundane. For ESKA, motherhood, creativity, and survival are all part of the same spell — and nowhere is that more powerfully felt than on her latest single, Daddy Long Legs, also released today.
A shapeshifting, synth-laced odyssey, Daddy Long Legs is a triumph carved from the wreckage of a toxic relationship. Co-written with Jesse Hackett, the track pulses with a hypnotic loop while celestial harmonies —courtesy of ESKA and Laura Groves— rise and twist like smoke from a ritual fire. Add Soweto Kinch’s spectral saxophone, and the result is pure alchemy: a cautionary tale turned empowerment anthem.

With lines like “It felt so good that you would think it was love / It will never see you right”, ESKA pulls no punches, exposing illusion and reclaiming self-worth. This is a warning and a celebration, a war cry wrapped in funk, fire, and freedom.

The release of Daddy Long Legs follows three powerful singles that paved the way for The Ordinary Life of a Magic Woman. January’s Down Here marked ESKA’s triumphant return to solo artistry – a genre-defying, vocal-driven statement of intent that introduced her as the self-proclaimed ‘Magic Woman’. In March, Magic Woman arrived as a shape-shifting anthem of feminine power and resistance, with ESKA channelling mythic energy through fire-soaked vocals and genre-bending production. Most recently, Human, released in April, delivered a glitchy, emotionally raw reflection on vulnerability and resilience, solidifying ESKA’s status as one of the UK’s most visionary voices.

The Ordinary Life of a Magic Woman is available now on vinyl and CD. The digital release follows on 23rd May 2025.
Listen to Daddy Long Legs and buy the album here: https://eska.ffm.to/tolmw

The Ordinary Life of a Magic Woman
Album Track List
1. Down Here
2. Daddy Long Legs
3. Wake Me Up
4. Magic Woman
5. All The Way Down
6. Klofrezaf
7. Human
8. Catfish Blues
9. Snoozing Friends
10. The Edge
11. Fazerfolk
12. Touch
13. Muzak