Lady Wray Ignites Berlin with JoyÂ
With the pipes to scare a grizzly bear, soul music’s Lady Wray ignites Berlin with the full range of her joyful, thunderous mezzo-soprano.
soul pop
Dancing in the Street: Our 25 Favorite Motown Songs
Detroit’s Motown Records will forever be important as a hit factory and an African American-owned label that achieved massive mainstream success and influence.
Jamila Woods Finds ‘Water Made Us’ While Seeking Love Inside Her
Jamila Woods’ Water Made Us is full of creativity. The songs are not just liquid, solid, and gas; they are blood, wine, and soul.
Jorja Smith Charms with ‘Falling or Flying’
Jorja Smith’s Falling or Flying is quite an accomplishment and an excellent vehicle for her estimable talents. It’s a low-key yet unequivocal triumph.Â
Fatoumata Diawara Creates African Pop-Soul From the Diaspora
On her strongest album yet, London Ko, Fatoumata Diawara demonstrates how music from today’s African diaspora can be “Everything Everywhere All at Once”.
U.S. Girls ‘Bless This Mess’ Embraces Materiality, Creativity, and Dance Grooves
In Bless This Mess, U.S. Girls identify funk and R&B grooves as conduits for the very pulse of life. It’s brilliantly conceived and executed.
Kainalu Looks on the Bright Side with “Intuitions / Inhibitions” (premiere)
Kainalu’s warm style of simmering psychedelic yacht-funk powers “Intuitions / Inhibitions” with its nourishing blend of style and substance.
Brandi and the Alexanders View Present Through Past on ‘REFLECTION’
Whether the songs concern racism, family matters, or dancing, one feels the music as well as hears it in Brandi and the Alexanders’ REFLECTION.
Oliver Sim Gets Frank and Frightening on ‘Hideous Bastard’
The xx’s Oliver Sim goes solo with Hideous Bastard, which deals with deconstruction and learning to surrender to desire as a means of a resurrection.
The Heavy Heavy’s Psych Debut ‘Life and Life Only’ Shatters ’60s Conventions
The Heavy Heavy’s ‘Life and Life Only’ mashes up soul, psych, mod, and a tinge of eerie folk to create ’60s sound thrillingly at odds with today’s pop charts.
Rachel McElhiney’s ‘I Love It Here’ Belies the Heart Beneath It All
The first thing you’ll notice about Rachel McElhiney is that deceptively powerful voice, which is a beautiful vehicle for her jazz-flecked tunes.
Boy George Went Solo with ‘Sold’ in the Tumultuous Mid-’80s
Boy George is an essential figure in queer pop culture because his work strove to counter the prevailing conversation about queerness in the 1980s.