rolling r&b 2025

no thread yet?

i've been digging the new nao album, especially opening track "wildflowers"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfFt-fc9GjY

i have not been digging sailorr and her insufferable but somehow very buzzy "pookie's requiem"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRlWPrmkTq8

no one grabbed the baton from me when i revived the kelela thread but her live album from the blue note is stunning to me, will def be one of the best R&B albums of the year

it's so good that imo she needs to do a reverse everything but the girl and shed dance beats for jazzy R&B

otherwise i'm waiting around for the summer walker album

Thanks for starting this. Will check out the stuff you mentioned.

Nothing much to contribute other than that I too like the Nao and Kelela (live) albums, and the Mereba album (The Breeze Grew A Fire) is also really great.

Whoa, had no idea there was a Kelela live album.

not sure if any of leon thomas's music has been discussed on ilm (search turns up posts about the same-named jazz vocalist) but he is definitely building up buzz and just did a good tiny desk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNnsTNZR2bU

yeah loved his tiny desk, and happy he played “breaking point” which is my fav of his

that was my fav from that set for sure, i haven't listened to his albums in full tho

Mereba album is really good

^I've been getting into that too, even considered starting a thread. a gentle breeze of an album

agreed, it's really good adult contempo r+b/nu-quiet storm. her voice continues to be just kinda passable, but her lyrics are always good. the beats this time remind me a lot of the ilxor fan fav we are king, especially on side two/second half. i don't mean to downplay it; just initial thoughts. "counterfeit" is great and a first listen love.

I think that's all pretty much otm. it *is* slight but I find it charmingly so

I’m here for it

this is top tier classic twee vibe imo. same with "counterfeit." i'm not even joking when i say that the way she puts her words together, combined with such earnest vibes is really reminiscent of bobby wratten to me. just big, wholesome, and sometimes venerable, naive vibes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLUtlsYxqpU
mereba ― "heart of a child" (2025)

thanks for the shout, everyone. this showed up in my new release notifications but i balked on checking it out until ya'll posted because i've been kinda mid on her previously. this album is great though. maybe it'll spark a revisit to the her catalogue.

listening to "Hawk" right now and at times it almost sounds like something from the late-90s Tortoise universe

neo/soul singer durand bernarr recently released a cd-sized album which is obv spotty but i am digging a lot. some great singing and deep grooves, and this one track that evokes organized noize and erykah badu (and specifically, "liberation" by outkast)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_n1iMh7p-Y

i write "neo/soul" like that because in the past he's been somewhat of a throwback soul singer, but he's decided to go neo on several tracks on the new one (titled, bloom)

yeah I like the durand bernarr album.

Besides the terrific Summer W. single (which came out at the end of December), here are a few tracks I've been digging:

Amelia Moore ft. Coco Jones, Absolutely & Samara Cyn - See Through (Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZWy_Bvh740

Flau'jae - OTW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAkI6BQ8Jbc

Wé Ani & Ajii - Forget About You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sltR1WB8Zms

grown folks r& b listeners are line dancing with fans in their hands to 803 Fresh song - "Boots on the Ground" w/ its lyric "where them fans at"

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

There are multiple videos and tik toks for the boots on the ground where them fans at line dance out

I wish I could convince you folks that you can like young r& b acts & older grown folks southern soul ones, like the above too.

Yes to We Ani & Ajii track above xpost

A new Amerie single! It's fairly conventional compared to her last project (way back in, gulp, 2018)... sounds like there's an album coming in June.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rklha0RBxP0

This Ayra Starr single from back in February ("All the Love") is quite nice -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lighfnq-1SM

sounds like there's an album coming in June

ftr, I was wrong about this… turns out it’s her debut novel.

enjoying the new alex isley ep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45MHkFcyvBY

this one ("mic on") is a more of a groove than a vocal showcase but her vocals on some other tracks are compellingly subtle and intricate

Yes!! I added that track to my own running playlist last week.

Summer's new single is lush, excellent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8QkDQZpD5I

jenevieve back.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFGdRiUozD4
"haiku"

So Summer Walker has 2 alternate versions of "Spend it"

the latest from mariah is a really pretty slow linn drum thing―

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx9h3iWudTU

mariah the scientist ― "burning blue"

yeah, very ciara "promise," which i'm not mad at, although i'm surprised at how quickly it's become far bigger than anything she's ever released

the power of celebrity gossip is very real!

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/arts/music/boots-on-the-ground-line-dance.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QU8.CFll.zp-fxqwnOPP5&smid=url-share

803 Fresh song and line dance "Boots on the Ground" makes the NY Times

have been feeling the new Q project 10 Songs, here's the single "Bad Man"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oFaaDNQ5tc

"Today" from his 2023 album Soul,Present is one of my favorite R&B singles of the last few years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk1U847h2MI

I get the sense that he's still finding his footing as an artistic, but I'm excited to see where he goes. Obvious comparisons here would be Miguel, Frank Ocean... Terence Trent D'Arby also comes to mind

where them faaaaans at

i like q a lot but he really hamstrung himself by picking the worst, most ungoogleable artist name of all-time