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Soul

Crystal Tamar’s ‘Whachoo Doin?!’ pushes project soul through Houston RnB adrenaline and Y2K pop hooks

Posted on 16 August 2026

Crystal Tamar revved up RnB to the nth degree in her audaciously fiery hit, Whachoo Doin?! The La Marque, Texas-born singer-songwriter, now thriving as a solo artist in Northern California, brings the kind of stage-forged confidence that makes sense from someone who once captained the Houston Texans cheerleaders before stepping into Sophia Fresh, T-Pain’s Atlantic Records girl group.

By taking a maximalist approach to the production’s adrenaline, Whachoo Doin?! hits with unrestrained, high-octane energy. Tamar can hold her own when it comes to conventional harmonies and pouring soul on top of soul, but she comes into her own when she is holding together a track sprawling in several directions without letting the emotional thread snap.

When she is riding boom-bap waves, she brings Houston-inspired chopped-and-screwed swagger into sharp relief. When she leans into the hook, cinematic Y2K pop resonance cuts through the production with enough gloss to make the single feel addictive without sanding down its bite. It is project soul with its nails done and its guard up.

Her résumé, from work with Kanye West, CeeLo Green and T.I. to voicing Josephine Baker for the Smithsonian, already proves her range. Executive-produced by Kosine and Young Fyre, This Changes Everything places Whachoo Doin?! inside a wider statement of love, self-searching and vocal firepower.

Whachoo Doin?! is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Loz Bridge Incited a Swanky Riot of Jazz-Infused Soul Pop from the Piano Bench with ‘Whatever It Takes’

Posted on 11 August 2026

Loz Bridge injected a potent dose of funked-up soul into his jazzy piano-pop tour de force of swank and style, Whatever It Takes. The songwriter, pianist and producer with a lifelong relationship to keys is a savant when his fingers are held in suspension above them, finding ways to entwine emotion and melody; he will infatuate listeners who treat technical skill as something to kneel at the altar of, while giving romantics the thematic warmth of sincerity spilling out in the form of an unconditional love song. Jazz aficionados may also want to prime themselves for the primal way the sax lines unspool through the radio-ready production.

The stridency of the euphoric momentum in Whatever It Takes sits beside the musicianship as the single opens into a riot of jazz-pop flavour. The production is immaculate, letting the piano gleam and the sax lines curl through the arrangement with after-dark heat Clarence Clemons would have smiled at.

After teaching himself to write songs in Amsterdam, then deepening his harmonic language through jazz-piano study at the Royal Welsh Conservatoire, Bridge brings depth to his oft steamy melodic lifts. As for his voice, imagine the expressive presence of Phil Collins fused into the husky magnetism of Marvin Gaye, and you’ll be right on the money that you’ll want to spend on his records after you hit play.

It’s about time someone dethroned Michael Buble, and I’m flying Loz Bridge’s banner.

Whatever It Takes is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Marvin Dark smouldered his way into the dark soul RnB pantheon with his cosmically exotic release, BODY

Posted on 10 August 2026

Few contemporary RnB singles could be considered truly timeless, but Marvin Dark’s decadently trippy single, BODY, will refuse to lose its cosmically scintillating power as genre trends shift beyond what the icons and assimilators are pushing out of the pipeline. The Los Angeles-based independent RnB artist has put himself on the map with his emotionally driven records rooted in intimacy, confidence, vulnerability and honest storytelling, and BODY brings that ethos into a more nocturnal, club-lit frame.

It’s a heady mix of dark soul, interstellar ambience and artful recontouring of RnB flavours. In spite of the innovative complexity in the timbrally lush arrangement, Marvin Dark brings enough commercial potential to hypnotise DJs into spinning it on repeat. The production feels expensive without becoming sterile, letting the low-end roll with velvet pressure while his vocal presence slips through the electronic layers with sensual restraint.

The Afrobeat-tinged flavours bring a sense of warmth and soul, but there’s a stylistic twist within the synth architecture that gives the release the appeal of an underground kinetic floorfiller. BODY makes his growth feel tangible, sharpening the intimacy of his sound while pushing it towards a wider dancefloor. Marvin Dark understands that RnB can still feel intimate while moving bodies.

BODY is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

A Fortune in Every Note: Abby Lee Signed, Sealed and Delivered ‘Sing the Blues Away’ as a Luxuriant Retro Soul Ascension

Posted on 5 August 2026

With a voice richer than the entire Forbes list, Abby Lee is more than equipped to Sing the Blues Away. On her latest single, the Philadelphia singer-songwriter pairs harmonies that soar far beyond the orbit of most vocalists with an arrangement led by a swanky, timeless piano melody. Through an assurance of an artist who understood her calling long before she stepped onto a stage, the power and poise within her voice instantly affirms that you’re in safe hands to find catharsis.

Shimmering organ tones bring a touch of gospel reverence, enveloping the stripped-back production in an almost divine aura while the blues ensemble gives the rhythm its steady, luxuriant swing. The arrangement understands the value of space, allowing each instrumental detail to frame her voice and honour its ascent. The momentum leaves you restless for the vocal crescendos, because standing in their presence feels like reaching the summit of Everest; reality becomes infinitely more expansive inside Abby Lee’s soul.

Raised beside her mother’s piano on standards including Stormy Weather and Sunday Kind of Love, Lee carries that blues education into the legacy she’s inexplicably building. The lineage of Etta James and Linda Ronstadt glows through her delivery, yet her sultry authority belongs entirely to her. With nine singles released and a debut album underway, Sing the Blues Away confirms her readiness for a far wider audience.

Sing the Blues Away is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Skip the Self-Help Shelf and Put Don Castor’s Euphoric Pop R&B Wisdom on Repeat with ‘I Make Me Happy’

Posted on 4 August 2026

You could read 100 self-help books, skim some Eastern philosophy and curate your Instagram feed into a barrage of positive mantras, or you could listen to I Make Me Happy by Don Castor for the same effect. Taken from the Freedom LP, the single wraps all the wisdom you’ll need into a euphoric pop earworm that writhes through R&B, soul and electronica.

Accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek music video, complete with a comedic B-movie-style Conan the Barbarian detour and an intergalactic UFO battle for extra serotonin, I Make Me Happy is guaranteed to colour your soul.

Castor’s experience across film and television, including Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Fantasy Island, feeds the visual spectacle without distracting from the song’s sincere emotional centre. By the outro, its infectiously warm chorus has hauled listeners away from terminal despondency and planted them somewhere sunnier.

I Make Me Happy extols the virtue of finding validation within yourself, checking out of the comparison game, putting one foot in front of the other and cutting ties that leave you anchored in misery. The bright production keeps everything airborne and reminds you that sometimes, all you need is someone to take the form of a conduit of soul and an icon of progressive house pop simultaneously, and lift you to heights that only sincerity can reach. Keep Castor on your radar for your own sake and sanity.

I Make Me Happy is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Apple Music.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Landyn Zane Rolled Cinematic Pop into Lost Love in ‘Sleep in the Backyard’

Posted on 3 August 2026

Landyn Zane took cinematic pop to theatrical new heights with his EP, Coming Attractions. Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust dedication courses through theatrical art pop that drifts the decades away, leaving you ready to roll up to a drive-in cinema in a 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air convertible, glass bottle of Coke in hand and your high school sweetheart beside you.

There’s a cosmic yearning within the closing single, Sleep in the Backyard, which goes out to the hopeless romantics; anyone who knows how it feels to hold a candle until they feel the burn. The swoon-worthy melody keeps the pace tantalisingly slow, giving desire and forlorn heartbreak room to breathe straight through to the soul. Diaphanous, graceful and ornately rich, the arrangement becomes moonlight caught on old film, flickering through an imagined Cedar Rapids romance and the childhood future that slipped into another timeline.

The vocal harmonies frame the sorrow in sumptuous cinema, affirming the classic nature of Landyn Zane’s songwriting within the lineage of John Lennon and Prince. Zane taught himself seven instruments and oversaw every musical and visual detail, extending each song into a fictional film campaign. That devotion gives Sleep in the Backyard a rare physical presence, ready to linger after the final credits surrender the screen.

Sleep in the Backyard is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Space by Anna Kaya Is Sensually Sweet RnB Pop with Funk, Fire and Freedom

Posted on 27 July 2026

Anna Kaya laid down luxe Latin guitar flourishes and dripped nuances of funk into her sensually sweet RnB ballad, Space, from her debut EP. The rising pop and RnB artist gravitates around Y2K RnB pop aesthetics with enough distinction in the fire of her smouldering performance to give her the keys to the genre that no one else could cut.

Written during her first session with producer and songwriter Jack Segal, and sparked by Tori Kelly and Forrest Frank’s MIRACLE WORKER, Space explores the empowered decision to step away from someone who repeatedly hurts you. The vignette is an exposition of how self-preservation can feel brutal before it feels freeing, and Kaya channels that conflict through vocals that hold equal amounts of vocal and emotional range.

As with all her other singles pushing her on her trajectory from up-and-coming to breakthrough artist, Kaya feels like a conduit of empowering soul. The confluence of cathartic production, sustained notes from organically rich instrumentals and her poised melodic control makes Space feel like a self-worth mantra wrapped in heat, softness and groove.

The single expands beyond romance into a wider anthem for breaking habits, releasing limiting beliefs and making room for healthier futures. If Anna Kaya keeps the airwaves lit in the vein she has since her 2022 debut with So Damn Crazy, Space could help place her within the RnB pantheon.

Space is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Leavell’s ‘Spotlight’ Turned Funk-Licked Indie Pop into a Mirror for Digital Exposure

Posted on 26 July 2026

Leavell held a groove-locked indie-pop mirror to the modern malaise of living in a digital panopticon; a world which views our every move as we increasingly see the value of keeping slivers of reality for ourselves. The Kentucky-based singer, songwriter and rapper traded his usual hip-hop weight to animate a summer-ready indie-pop earworm on Spotlight, one of three singles released in a single-day showcase of his range.

The single stands as definitive proof that he’s up there as one of the greatest thematic contemporary lyricists. “She don’t want the spotlight, her flaws will show” is a flooringly ingenious lyrical hook in the context of the feel-good, radio-ready release. Held against warm, mellifluous, guitar-led melodies and conveyed through a honeyed-with-charisma vocal range, it is all too efficacious in exhibiting how we are held hostage to the expectation of being seen. It’s the kind of funk-licked indie-pop hit you can imagine coming out of Daft Punk’s arsenal, but there is no replicating the temperate glow of Leavell’s soul.

Leavell’s own description of popularity as a job of hiding flaws gives the single its cultural bite. He understands that curated glamour often becomes its own cage, where the fear of judgement is dressed up as aspiration. But, sonically, Spotlight is a far cry from a dystopian flare gun; the production carries enough funk-slick lift to make the track feel playlist-ready, while the lyric keeps it grounded in the exhaustion of being perceived. Regardless of how much we want the heart reacts, I’m pretty sure we can all agree.

After building an independent catalogue across relationships, perseverance, accountability and everyday life, Leavell is more than ready to step far beyond “Kentucky’s Best Kept Secret”.

Spotlight is now available to stream on all major platforms. Find your preferred way of listening via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Beth Miller and Harold MacCallum Made ‘Time Machine’ an Acoustic Folk Keepsake for the Last Lover Left Alive

Posted on 24 July 2026

With a crystalline voice that almost carries the warm static of time and love-worn vinyl LPs, Beth Miller made her latest single, Time Machine, feel recovered from a drawer full of unsent letters. Featuring Harold MacCallum, the single takes rose-tinted mementoes and opens them up to the world, allowing the Scottish acoustic-folk singer-songwriter’s fans to live vicariously within the lush romanticism of the love-letter-esque poetry.

There is a beautifully old-fashioned patience in the arrangement: nylon-string guitar, soft vocal phrasing and enough space between the lines for memory to do its worst. Miller has been described as a singer of wee Scottish-sounding songs, but Time Machine proves how far that smallness can travel when the emotional detail is this sharply held. Her voice has a tear-glazed clarity while her writing remains earthy and witty in its amorously imaginative introspection.

The lyrics voiced between the two artists could have been exchanged between Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. As the outro arrives, the longing between the lovers becomes devastatingly sweet, broadsiding with the same kind of tragic finality as Nick Cave and Kylie’s Where the Wild Roses Grow. Time Machine captures the raw pain of reality, when there is only one lover left alive. One thing is for sure: after the final lyric has recontextualised the entire arrangement and narrative, you won’t stop at first listen. You’ll want to consume Time Machine again in it’s complete bittersweet beauty.

Time Machine is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Vashoun Stjon’s One More Time Carried Contemporary RnB into Steamy Slow-Burn Territory

Posted on 23 July 2026

Vashoun Stjon longs to immortalise ephemeral moments of affection in his latest soul-driven contemporary RnB single, One More Time. The independent Los Angeles-area RnB and pop artist brought the genre right into the current RnB zeitgeist, backing his butter-wouldn’t-melt harmonies with a solid trap beat and a cinematic sense of intimacy.

Swathed with lush licks of wavy, colour-saturated reverb, the ballad-esque earworm carries a hypnotic aura that envelops you as you bathe in the artist’s passionate conviction. The influence of The Weeknd and Lucky Daye can be felt in the low-lit sensuality of the arrangement, yet Stjon keeps enough classic soul warmth in his delivery to ensure his sonic signature stands alone.

One More Time understands desire as memory in motion: the urge to replay a touch, a look, a moment before it disappears into the ordinary cruelty of time. That emotional framing isn’t undercut by its commercial sharpness. Yet, you can imagine it playing as the heat rises in the bedroom in a Netflix blockbuster, signalling the breakthrough artist’s multi-faceted appeal in the industry.

Following Club Vibe, and with Welcome to Hollywood set for September 2026, Stjon is more than ready to keep widening his lane. His ability to conjure imagery through harmony, steamy romanticism and melody is dialled up to the nth degree in all his latest releases. What’s set to follow is bound to break more moulds.

One More Time is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

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