R&Been Away

Wow. So whilst I've been tied up doing an FPL podcast, R&B has had a pretty exciting revival. Not that it ever really went away or stopped being good or whatever, but some true classics have surfaced over the last three months and I would just like to do is run you through them.

Very shortly after I gave up on even just weekly posts here, Brent Faiyaz went and dropped two hits, one, a solo effort, and the other as a member of Sonder. I'll freely admit at this point that I had absolutely no idea Faiyaz was involved in a project other than just him being him, nor was I actually aware of Sonder's existence. So, February was a nice surprise. The solo track 'Make Luv' has a bit more attitude about it than I remember the tracks on Faiyaz's last full-length Sonder Son having. I quite like scorned Brent. I guess the "thought I wasn't much but now you wanna make love to me" line relates to what we heard on the chorus of Goldlink's 'Crew', "I was down and out like last week, tell me where have you been". The Sonder track, 'One Night Only' flips the coin (is that the phrase??) on the situation with a softer vibe and vocal with a pretty outrageously catchy bass and guitar lines.

Was I genuinely unaware that both CVIRO and GXNXVS are Australian before sitting down to write this?** Like... it's actually quite obvious but took me by absolute surprise. It's no secret, however that a couple of years ago these two released one of my favourite songs I've ever posted, 'Sober', so I'm sure you can only imagine how gassed I was to see they are back and imminently releasing their debut EP together. (I have no idea when that's actually happening because God forbid anybody send me a press release I actually want to receive.) The two new tracks we've heard from this singer/producer duo so far are 'Lady', which is good, and 'Twisted', which is great - a hit. CVIRO's vocal is a perfect 90's throwback from start to finish, and GXNXVS's production is crisp as hell. I am hyped, you should be too.

God. The amount I love white men doing R&B is nigh on embarrassing. Some other songs I reckon you should be 100% aware of. LA based Danish artist Galimatias released a track called 'South' the other week which is such a shameless attempt at being sexy but it works thus I am not mad. Canadian duo Always Never have put out the weirdly titled 'Morgan Freeman'. The vocal sounds scarily close to those of Chase Atlantic but I feel like this pair have far more integrity than those kids from Australia who probably really just wanted to be a rock band. Finally, Ama Lou (woah, at last, a female) released a three track... EP(?) titled DDD; the stand out on which is opener 'Tied Up'. This track is strangely minimalist, one of those where you don't really realise how little is going on underneath Ama Lou's voice unless you pay some real attention.

All of these songs are available to listen to right now (non)exclusively on Keep It 2018.

** In my first ever post about both CVIRO and GXNXVS I noted that they were Australian. So, it's transpired I'm just thick.