rolling r&b 2021

If I may take the liberty of kicking off this year's thread (with thanks/apologizes to dyl) - a fresh & fun jam with tight production:

Ebhoni - Hit This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ir9ZylmT494

Victoria Monét also has a new track out - her first since Jaguar won hearts & minds in ILM's 2020 polls - but I'm not gonna link it, b/c sadly it's kind of a dud :(

...but if you seek Monét...

hey, the Ebhoni is a nice surprise - definitely fresh, produced by IzyBeats, winner of our hearts & mind through their work with Koffee, and last seen working with Masego

hearts & hivemind, I guess

ah, that's his tag at the beginning - cool

thank you for starting this! lol i never meant to be 'the person' to start any rolling threads, it just happened to work out that way a few times in the past couple years

wow seriously fantastic production from Izy there -- not sure I like Ebhoni's voice really but will return to this.

You all probably know this already, but other good Izy beats include Jorja Smith & Burna Boy's "Be Honest" and Lila Iké's "I Spy"

I agree, her voice is kind of shrill... good track, though

Love this new one from Raveena (“Tweety”):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4t37sXE_N0

Brent Faiyaz released a free EP on his website with this seriously outré and intriguing song on it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdm1_70sK_A

"Circles"

Ebhoni has a new 4-track EP out - here's another track with fresh, airy IzyBeats production:

Ebhoni - All to Myself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4pE8FQuCZc

I’m obsessed w the new brent, one of the most exciting things in music period right now

Btw Priscilla renae who wrote “California king bed” for Rihanna has a new artist project out as Long Muni, I think it’s for some interesting stuff in it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgtfEEuqLEw

Smooth:

Mahalia - Jealous (feat. Rico Nasty)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyBGzYkHLRk

those are both great (still not feeling Ebhoni, sorry Izy)

Muni Long is a nice find. Dig this one that just came out:

Thot Thoughts (feat. Sukihana)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4aSEJtDjs4

the coda on that is pretty amazing

i mean, whole thing is great tbc

Yeah the coda first caught my ear in particular. It’s a standout track. Great lyrics too

enjoying lucky daye's ep, table for two, that came out just before valentine's day. all of its songs are duets w/ women in r&b -- yebba, tiana major9, mahalia, ari lennox, queen naija, and joyce wrice -- and they're all good tracks that showcase the guests well. i wouldn't even say there's a standout cut, really, just enjoyable + very well produced basically all the way through. pick yr fave guest vocalist if you wanna sample just one track... or there's this promo video/'visual poem' with bits of most of 'em (tho honestly you may as well just listen to the 22-minute ep if yer willing to do the 8-minute clip)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYg-t0d8Ds4

giveon, whose "like i want you" i have been hearing on the radio a little lately, seems to be breaking through in a big way on the streaming services with that song and especially "heartbreak anniversary," both from an ep that came out last spring (he's put out another ep since then). ironically, the latter, now more reactive song was already pushed to radio months ago but went nowhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nja_0BaQcNg

i do prefer that one to "like i want you," but it's not bad either. his voice is certainly idiosyncratic -- i think i supposed he wasn't american when i first heard it. i guess it is almost compulsory to have a 'weird' voice if you wanna break thru w/ the tiktok'd teenagers these days anyhow. sample youtube comment from the "like i want you" clip: "bruh his voice already sounds like the slowed+reverb thingy"

supposedly the streaming spike came from a push around valetine's day (which i guess worked), but i would guess timing has just as much to do w/ the grammys happening soon (the ep got a nomination there)

There's a new "Chrome Edition" of last year's Chloe x Halle album, with a few added tracks. I like this one ("80/20"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWVbnY68Trc

realizing I slept on last year's Queen Naija album... it's really nice, with accomplished songwriting. and her voice is lovely

she's grown on me. didn't really like her first couple hits but i did enjoy hearing "butterflies pt. 2" from that album on the radio

Hey this Genesis Owusu guy and his music are pretty awesome.

can brent just release his next album already

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE2auM5W08E
("show u off")

cowritten by diana gordon btw

"circles" was fascinatingly out-there but didn't really click for me

this one is just fantastic

that's great, really exciting run from him

circles & show you off (and of course dead man walking) are all absolutely incredible. Not counting the tyler song ofc, 3/3

also this jersey club remix of Brent is one of my fav new records:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvQfOWfcJp0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWmCPdTzAKI
Genesis Owusu - Bye Bye

Rather falls under D'Angelo-style neo-soul, the guy is Australian of Ghanaian origins. I do not like his voice / vocals so much but there's no denying that there is very tasty production and licks on that album. That's the closer.

Maybe it's also worth posting the obvious lead song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25CBe5FAvtI
Genesis Owusu - The Other Black Dog

really enjoyed this Genesis Owusu album, but damn the melodic hooks in this Frank Ocean-esque collab track are a total earworm!!


Billy Davis- Dream No More (feat Ruel and Genesis Owusu)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R26Hsluzhiw

I've been waiting for this Joyce Wrice album for 3 years and it's finally out today. Everything I wanted it to be so far.

Gets less good as it progresses. Oh well.

Maeta's Teen Scene (feat. Buddy) was a favorite of mine last year - now she released this gorgeous, minimal new track:

Maeta - Toxic (ft. BEAM)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo1tkWTrFb8

Another hot new jam from Muni Long!

Muni Long - Bodies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qJ_1I3b1UQ

Really glad to be discovering Maeta. Her first single, Debbie Downer, from 2 years ago is a hell of a first song.

"toxic" is fantastic

good track with Masego:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id4tzsOgq_8
Elhae ft. Masego • My City

and yes, “Toxic” is great

and, damn, so is “Teen Scene”, forgot all about that one

This is is chill & vibey (nice guitar):

Christian Kuria - 23rd Street

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enKD9I-CXhc

This is also chill & vibey (nice bassline):

Yeek - Lumbago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOwQ7qOCPm0

anyone been listening to the joyce wrice album? one of my fav records of the year so far. it reminds me of teedra moses, amerie era R&B, upbeat and melodically driven. they also picked great singles as evidenced below but the album is dope front to back

"on one"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLMxnDuQCJg

"so so sick"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoYxYbSPACQ

I've given it several tries, but it just hasn't grabbed me. I don't really care for her voice, tbh

oh, this is smooth (remember going out?) -

Rayana Jay - last call (Audio) (feat. Braxton Cook)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3MdFFtueiU

Mahalia's voice is beautiful on this bedroom jam:

Chiiild - Awake (ft. Mahalia)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K58GojV2tz0

the Genesis Owusu album has way more going on than just neo-soul. i'm not sure if i love it, it's really all over the place, but i'm fascinated by it. also definitely not somewhere i was expecting kirin j callinan to show up?

not that r&b in general is lacking in rich and thrilling production lately, but gallant's new ep neptune is certainly a pleasure on that front. i'm not sure all of it works for me yet, but at its best it's deeply compelling stuff. it's bookended by both of the pre-release singles ("comeback" and "relapse"), and while i like both, some of the tracks i'll be returning to most are those in the middle, like "julie" (which includes the phrase 'carbon-based lifeform') and "scars"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlTzesoErWI

"scars" drops an 808 beat over its achingly beautiful bed of synths at the arrival of the chorus -- specifically the pattern that has been in countless bass and freestyle records over the years but which is most fondly associated in my mind with tunes like "when i hear music" and lathun's "freak it". it's quietly, relentlessly insistent in a song about coping with loss and pain but it takes me somewhere effortlessly. a comment he liked on the youtube upload more-or-less confirms what's already fairly evident, which is that he was thinking of the so so def bass records when recording it, and i think he really tapped into the sense of latent nostalgia and regret that's long been hiding in those records to begin with. i am deep in my feelings abt the passage of youth (lol). it ends with a string quartet(?) that is also beautiful

(riyl haim's "i know alone" from last year, as i do most particularly)

that's really lovely except there's a few moments where it just adds in an extra pause before "scars" and it sounds so disjointed

Yeah, that extra little glitch is odd...

I find the production almost TOO glass-wall smooth on this track, somehow.

Enjoying the Cosha “album” (in quotation marks as there are only 8 tracks, 2 of them not previously released as singles, and one that also appeared on a previous album / mixtape)

Summer Walker working on album w/Pharrell and Sean Garrett.

Fun new Tinashe track ("Bouncin"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDGLO_PsQvo

(about to get into the Mariah the Scientist album; psyched that it's out today.)

one of the highlights - "Maybe":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy0hf3n0LcY

new Mariah the Scientist album is really good. Also very concise, I think most tracks are under three minutes.

New Sno Aalegra out

honestly remarkable how much drake kills the vibe on that otherwise pretty good brent faiyaz single

i dunno, i hated the beat. "the neptunes" is such a negative signifier these days for me, the gulf between clout for the artist and quality of production is really wide

didn't even realize it was them, tbh. they really should not be messing with those blown-out 808s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXgA3koewAo

This is a nice, airy jam -

Tink ft. Yung Bleu - Selfish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xec6qA0N3TM

i actually like the brent/drake single but unfortunately it seems one of the stations in my city has decided to play an edit that cuts out the vast majority of brent's parts but of course leaves drake's section untouched. i complained via email

(same station also played a horrific edit of "good days" w/ like a third of the runtime cut out and, most bizarrely, an edit of "sicko mode" with most of travis scott's parts cut out, again effectively making it a drake song. sometimes i don't know why i even bother w/ radio anymore)

Muni Long put out an EP (Nobody Knows) – it includes "Thot Thoughts," tho unfortunately not "Bodies." The closing track is a nice ballad, "Just Beginning":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhKsMTPcZfA

The new Tink LP sounding good so far – includes "Selfish" (see above).

also has more authentically "'80s"-feeling cover art than John Mayer's:

https://resources.tidal.com/images/9de5316e/eb91/4f2e/8970/894ebebb8a43/640x640.jpg

new Amerie single(!) – "Wild Side"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU5pJjVwG_M

I'm kinda feeling "What's Your Sign," a breezy jam by Reyanna Maria, a new Australian artist:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2_Q0Ozl0yk

(It's a little raunchy; but her earlier single this year, "So Pretty (ft. Tyga)" is incredibly dirty... the lyrix made me blush, lol)

Summer Walker’s new album comes out next month, and she’s begun hyping it up… yesterday, she launched an amusing IG acct, @summersharddrive.

…and it’s called: Still Over It.
🧐🤔

she shoulda called it “i promise i’m not still thinking about it”

first single is surprisingly poppy:

Summer Walker - Ex for a Reason (ft. JT from City Girls)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK0BzeBs90o

The album’s out, but I’m hesitant… that single was disappointing, and something about this tracklist.. idk

BITTER (NARRATION BY CARDI B)
EX FOR A REASON (WITH JT FROM CITY GIRLS)
NO LOVE (WITH SZA)
THROW IT AWAY
RECIPROCATE
YOU DON’T KNOW ME
CIRCUS
INSANE
CONSTANT BULLSHIT
SWITCH A NIGGA OUT
UNLOYAL (WITH ARI LENNOX)
CLOSURE
TOXIC (FEATURING LIL DURK)
DAT RIGHT THERE (WITH PHARRELL WILLIAMS, THE NEPTUNES)
SCREWIN (WITH OMARION)
BROKEN PROMISES
SESSION 33
4TH BABY MAMA (PRELUDE)
4TH BABY MAMA
CIARA’S PRAYER (NARRATION BY CIARA)

Ok so it's a set of extremely personal & direct breakup songs, all addressing London (by name). "Ex for a Reason" aside, it seems (so far) like a hardcore r&b album, with some jazzy touches that recall the stuff she did on Clear. I haven't listened to the whole thing yet...

"ex for a reason" maybe my fav song of the year. was disappointed listening to this that it's the only one w/ a beat aside from the predictably awful neptunes homage. some of the songs seemed decent enough tho

“ex for a reason” is good, especially it’s verse, but the vocal overdubs on the chorus muddle it and keep it from hitting as hard as it should imo

album is good tho, even as someone who dgaf about the drama. especially enjoying “circus” and “constant bullshit”

I like the Neptunes track! ("Dat Right There")

bleh. i wonder when artists will stop foisting their nostalgia for curdled "change clothes" era neptunes productions on us. brent faiyaz same thing this year

the Neptunes were madly overrated to begin with and Pharell in 2021 seems even worse, I wish artists would realise this

eh I just like the sound, it’s fun to hear every once in a while

another quality project from summer. some of it could definitely be excised including the neptunes track but i found stretches of it great

india shawn's EP "before we go" is out - the second track "don't play with my heart" is so lush, one of my favourite songs this year

https://open.spotify.com/album/1MnOpmiIDEfloQektuOGkr

Muni Long has a new EP out, called Public Displays of Affection. It's good! She really has a way with words...

I'm not a big SZA fan, but I like her new song ("I Hate U"). I also think the best track on the Summer album is the song w/SZA ("No Love").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38TEd55NcXs

new brent faiyaz track "mercedes" is really good

Seeing a few r'n'b albums showing up on some 2021 critics lists... Caramanica in NY Times has Summer Walker

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYCKZ1Wk7ZE
Amaal - Honey (from her EP Milly)

this faiyaz song is my fav of his so far this year

i'm still playing summer walker's album myself (skipping a handful of tracks). "no love" is great as is "screwin'"

I had a tune in my head all last week; realized today it’s the chorus of “Constant Bullshit.”

i'm obsessed w/ the summer walker album. top 2 of the year for me. ex for a reason, throw away, reciprocate, you don't know me, constant bullshit, unloyal, screwin are all knockouts to me. you don't know me in particular is just stunning. and the rest is pretty great too

It's kind of similar to the last album, in that I underrated / didn't connect with it so much at first, and then it has grown on me. There's no "Tonight" or "Off of You" this time (the two astonishingly great tracks from Over You), but overall she was a step ahead of my expectations once again.

*Over It

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdTpQ-URyTw

also, i understand she has some real anxiety issues as it pertains to performing and stuff (feel you, girl), but i love the way it comes off as this kind of too cool for school anti-stage presence, her voice sounding so smooth and poised

I had the chance to see her in a theater a few years back (before she blew up), but couldn't go... regret missing that opportunity

my sister sent me this incredible Amber Mark song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXaPGlkd5do

new album next month, the other four singles are pretty great too

I don't know anything about dvsn, but I really like this lush R&B cover of a song I dislike.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiMrzqdFiA4

https://slate.com/culture/2021/12/best-r-b-albums-2021-jazmine-sullivan-summer-walker-bell-hooks.html

Briana Younger on her fave 2021 r'n'b and what it meant to her

Nice Maeta cover of a Don Toliver song ("Swangin on Westheimer"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pX-Pau6S8wc

EOY Errata: two unrelated (but both good) 2021 songs titled "Sneaky Link":

Muni Long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXjnm4UPqC0

Savannah Cristina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L0pyTQBxJk