rescuing musical virtue in distress.
Yolanda Arrey is proof that the world is a small place. So small in fact that musical styles and cultural inspirations are free to mix and clash and create at will, to fuse and confuse, to find new balances and new forms as people move around the world living their lives. Genre and geography are... Continue Reading →
There seem to be some wonderful hidden depths to be found in Personal. What at first appears to be a slick and modern electro-R&B song about ending a relationship whilst trying to convince the other party not to take things personally, also echoes Davon’s own struggle when trying to forge a career in music. That... Continue Reading →
Now, more than ever, is the time when music can be used as a powerful tool, or as Hereami himself says, as “weaponised art.” It’s fine if you just want to write songs about fun and frivolity, after all, it's the perfect medium for escapism and euphoria, but perhaps with such dark clouds gathering around... Continue Reading →
If Feng Shui is the ancient art of being at one with your environment, 1st Klase takes this idea and applies it to a broader, more modern world. The song celebrates the idea of creating a harmonious world around you, through which you can live life to the fullest, and is unapologetic about its single-minded... Continue Reading →
My Baby is a collection of songs inspired by the transient nature of life. A reminder that even the most precious things, and especially the people, can be taken away from us without warning. But it is also a reflection on the world round us and these two threads are woven lyrically and emotively through... Continue Reading →
I think that you can make a fair argument for the idea that “world music” is dead! Though it was probably only ever a term coined by middle managers playing Bulgarian folk music at their dinner parties in an effort to make themselves seem more interesting. The world has become such a culturally cross-pollinated place,... Continue Reading →
It’s the curse of our modern lifestyle. You find the one that you want to spend the rest of your life with but then gradually gravitate towards spending so much time indulging your own passions and pastimes that you neglect the one thing that should be most important in your life. We all need space but... Continue Reading →
We’ve all been there. You break up with the significant other in dramatic fashion. You head out to the into the night with that “I’m better off single anyway” refrain floating around your brain. The world is your oyster, you can do what you want, you are young, free and …stupid! You stagger through the... Continue Reading →
The world abounds with young R’n’B wannabes, wrapping their hopes and dreams in a pop-groove and sending their thoughts out into the world to hopefully connect with like-minded individuals. And that is all very well and good but it essentially just perpetuates the tried and tested. More songs about young love, about meeting the one,... Continue Reading →
Music has always been a useful part of any emotional healing process. As a listener it reminds you that there are others who have gone through the same turmoils and heart-aches, as an artist it is a way of putting down on paper the thoughts and emotions racing around your head and in doing so,... Continue Reading →
Taking the sassier grooves of the R&B signature sound and running them through a hip-hop soundscape, Ajay Brown uses this musical springboard to push, not just the boundaries of his own music but perhaps urban music itself. Whilst Real Situations comes from an autobiographical place, discussing his own life and loves, stories and struggles, it... Continue Reading →
If any more proof were needed that the modern music maker has out grown genres, The Glow Up is a lesson in mixing familiar styles together to make wholly new creations. It runs on a laid back urban beat, one woven from slow trippy back beats and a triplet-trap percussive energy. But it then steps... Continue Reading →
All too often you hear a song and it sounds like the vocals and the tune are two different components, the former just thrown on top of the latter with little in common save for a common melody. It is great, therefore, to come across a song where the vocal delivery sits right in amongst... Continue Reading →
So much music these days uses technology to hide its failings, compensate for things that are lacking in the artist's own musical repertoire. It is both the blessing and the curse of the modern world. It means that almost anyone can make music, which is as much a good thing as it is bad. If... Continue Reading →
There is certainly something about Katrina Stuart’s brand of R&B driven, clubland pop that sets her apart for those around her. It isn’t so much the sounds that she uses or the type of song she is writing, for those aspects, whilst still cleverly wrought, stay within the generic norms for someone with an eye... Continue Reading →
There is something wonderfully infectious about the Reggaetron grooves and easy rhythms that ooze out of Darshae Kiér ’s latest release. Reggae has always had a back end sound which is hard to not be beguiled by and the dance floor has always been driven by beats which make you want to move. Halasana Girl... Continue Reading →
It’s great after a day of reviewing mumbly, bedroom rappers and kids who still worship at the feet of Oasis to be presented with something a bit different, a bit original, a bit unexpected. And Momma Told Me So is all of those things. It has one foot in the past soul and r&b sound... Continue Reading →
For a middle-aged geezer like me, the music made by ensemble (I would describe them as a band but a band is generally made up of musicians armed with an instrument, The Moods are more like ‘music makers’ incorporating producers and poets, as well as musicians) seems miles from the stuff I have in my... Continue Reading →
Well, that was not what I was expecting at all. I know that you should go into a song with a more open mind but sometimes names just get in the way and start conjuring all manner of wrong turns and false images in your mind. In my mind Princess Spank is some sort of... Continue Reading →
Unless you’re a fan of reggae you possibly wouldn’t be aware that reggae has spent the last few decades stretching away from the stereotypical ‘chung-chung’ guitar and has found it’s feet in other genres and sub genres that has not only enhanced the music but also widened the possibilities that the music can move into.... Continue Reading →
There is a strange mixing of worlds going on in the sonic fabric of Jonathan Scott’s new release. It balances the expected skittering trap beats and a lazy R&B groove with some less expected sounds, shimmering harps and cascades of oriental strings but then why not? Why look to the music of the past when... Continue Reading →
With just enough echo of past soul icons, Isaiah Steward makes music that both thoroughly embraces the present and paves a way into a bright future. Down For Me exists at a point where chilled R&B, slick and sultry pop and intelligent slow dance grooves all meet. The beats are wilfully lazy creating a swaggering coolness... Continue Reading →
Anyone who Eddie Spaghetti describes in such enthusiastic tones as “raw, real and passionate…and boy, do we need Mr Todd and his Rankoutsiders, now more than ever,” is someone I will automatically take notice of. But as album reviews go I should probably write a bit more to convince those who, unlike me, probably don’t... Continue Reading →
You can’t say that Agency don’t have a great work ethic. It seems that just as the last offering of tunes are fading from my memory, and only leaving because I have so much music pushing up against them, a new selection of songs arrives to take their place. It’s an ironic thing that as... Continue Reading →
Shine is the perfect example of devotional music being able to be as modern and accessible as any other chart bound, mainstream offering. For whilst her music is intrinsically linked to her faith, Christa Deánā writes songs that sit easily within the modern pop-r&b canon. She also writes lyrics which swerve the trap, that many... Continue Reading →
Dance driven R&B is a busy section of the virtual music shop these days and as such it takes a lot to stand out from the white noise of the pack. Like much music found in the mainstream market, there is a tendency to merely copy what has already proven to work and hope that... Continue Reading →
Chasing Ghosts, the opening salvo and first single from Ben’s debut release, is the sort of song that you feel as if you have heard it before. Not because it sounds like something someway apart from the current pop canon but because its clean, R&B-infused, musical lines and unfussy nature already make it sound like... Continue Reading →
Agency has become one of the acts that I really look forward to hitting the review pile these days. Odd considering that their cool urban grooves, the soulful blends of pop, chilled dance, their slight nod to hip-hop and occasional rap excursions should resonate so strongly with someone like me who grew up to the... Continue Reading →
The piano ballad has always been an effective musical format. Able to tug on heartstrings, ooze emotion, be relatable in the love, loss and longings that are the lyrical fare of such types of music. Week, Love is the sound of David Hugø updating that style for a modern audience and it is this blend of... Continue Reading →
We so often hear artists talk about how making an album can be a cathartic process, how music is a way of exorcising personal demons, of freeing the soul and revealing their inner most turmoils, deepest emotions, most private thoughts. But more often than not the said album actually ends up being little more than... Continue Reading →