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New RnB Music Blog

PINAR mastered the art of dark RnB melancholy with her debut single, Almost Believe

Posted on 28 September 2026

After spending years keeping her talent hidden, PINAR stepped out with a boundary-breaking dark RnB-pop debut that spellbinds from the first breath. Almost Believe introduces the Turkish-rooted, Germany-born, England-based singer-songwriter as an independent artist who has been writing in private for years, waiting until one track finally demanded to be heard.

Latin guitars weave shadowy melodies through the slow, atmospheric production, while PINAR’s layered vocal harmonies give her debut a theatrical, almost baroque art-pop feel without tempering any of the intimacy or soul within the more traditional echoes of RnB pop. The song sits in the space between doubt and hope, where part of you knows you may be holding onto an idea in vain, but another part still wants to believe it. The emotional dissonance ricochets through the production, refusing to leave the soft euphonic glow of the release to feel fragile..

There is a dark, cinematic pull here that fans of BANKS’ moody RnB architecture, Sevdaliza’s spectral drama and FKA twigs’ art-pop intimacy will understand immediately, but PINAR’s voice carries its own siren-esque invitation. Her harmonies move like smoke around the confession, drawing you deeper into the mind of one of the most fascinating new RnB acts we have heard this year.

PINAR let her demons out to play with her debut; she is absolutely going to slay with her sophomore.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Zipporah turned island-pop desire into a heat-drunk escape hatch with ‘I Like’ from her debut EP

Posted on 28 September 2026

Zipporah’s debut EP, HNY SCKL, is an island-pop destination you will never want a return ticket from, and its standout single, I Like, makes the British-born, Anguillian-raised songstress sound primed for global fixation. Rooted in Caribbean rhythm, feminine power and sensual self-possession, the track carries the same high-calibre aura that has already brought Zipporah support from Niji Magazine, We Plug Good Music, BBC Radio and iHeartRadio.

I Like is a melodically lush, slow-burning earworm that drives up the mercury to the nth degree. There is an almost dreamy, semi-lucid quality to the Afropop release, but Zipporah breaks up the expected motion with future-forward, glitchy syncopation, sending the rhythmic pulses straight into overdrive. Her vocal timbre is a disarming weapon any record label should want in their arsenal: sweet on the surface, but impossible to underestimate once the hook starts working its way under the skin.

You can hear the foundational pull of Bob Marley in the Caribbean warmth and Michael Jackson in the melodic snap, while the glossy island-pop confidence sits in the same heatwave as Rihanna’s most sun-drenched pop instincts and Tyla’s waist-winding modernity. Still, Zipporah keeps HNY SCKL tied to her own femme-fatale world, where sensuality, girlhood and power move as one to steam up your speakers.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jay Activist turned relationship fault lines into hip-hop gold with ‘MAYBE IM THE PROBLEM’

Posted on 27 September 2026

Jay Activist has stormed through 2026, solidifying his status as an artist who can spin soul into playlist-staple-worthy material. MAYBE IM THE PROBLEM, the title single from his 3-track release, which dropped on September 1st, exhibits the organic warmth of his sound and lyrical proclivity while placing the Southside Atlanta artist on an even more sure-fire trajectory.

The title track strips back the bravado, leaving behind an onslaught of intimate, accountable thoughts that skew the fault lines within relationships until everything feels far less black and white. Jay Activist invites listeners into a world of rhythmically colour-soaked feeling, where Latin guitars, gentle reverb-lush layers, inventive strings and his voice itself become instruments of pure passion. This is not the hollowness of lust; it is the virtue of looking within and feeling a fervid fire ignite as you attempt to reconcile yourself with the mess that surrounds the periphery of your world.

Sitting in the elastic space between rap and R&B, MAYBE IM THE PROBLEM carries the loose melodic charisma you hear in Smino’s more sun-warmed work, the conversational openness of Chance the Rapper and the soulful ease of rappers who allow feeling to outrun ego.

After building from college stages and open mics into venues that scouted him, Jay Activist is way beyond cutting his teeth; this year, he’s been biting down on the airwaves with a razor-wire bite, and we can’t wait to hear what’s next from one of the most promising names in Atlanta’s rap scene.

MAYBE IM THE PROBLEM is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

TYGAV spirals through hazy desire in his DIY indie RnB synth-pop debut ‘(I CAN’T PUT MY) FINGER ON IT’

Posted on 20 September 2026

A self-written, produced and mastered debut single can only come from an artist charged with confidence in creative conviction fused with raw, needs-to-be-unleashed passion, and that is exactly what emanates from TYGAV’s fully DIY release, (I CAN’T PUT MY) FINGER ON IT. Released through mid air records, the debut captures an artist already trusting of his own melodic nerve and driven by the chemical pull of infatuation.

The woozy, funky, euphoria-laced single efficaciously visualises the spiral of developing feelings for a friend, pulling you into a kaleidoscope of anxiously hazy desire with enough visceral charge that you may as well be head over heels yourself. The groove has that late-night elasticity, warm enough for a party yet intimate enough for a 3am bedroom dance scene.

The slight DIY tinge refuses to temper the stylised vitality of the release; it amplifies the indie RnB soul accessibility as the rhythms lead you down a new-wave, synth-pop-laced rabbit hole of passion. Steve Lacy’s slinky funk sensibility, Blood Orange’s dreamy RnB colour and Omar Apollo’s lovestruck looseness all flicker around the edges of TYGAV’s sonic signature that’s set to scribe itself through RnB soul fans who like their playlist staples hazily tactile.

(I CAN’T PUT MY) FINGER ON IT is now available on all major streaming platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hedonically steamy RnB-pop hits club-ready opulence in Amari Fontaine’s ‘Complicated’

Posted on 15 September 2026

After opening for Justin Timberlake, the eclectic RnB-pop fusionist Amari Fontaine kicked the door to the industry open wide, and with his latest single, Complicated, he fed the airwaves a sticky-sweet earworm that writhes through hypnotically infectious rhythms. The singer-songwriter and performer has already proven his command of the stage, and here, he makes the studio feel just as charged.

The hyper-pop treatment on the vocals gives Complicated its neon-glazed edge, while the production streams with opulence through a hedonically steamy atmosphere. Fontaine’s delivery leans into the thrill of emotional mess rather than tidying it into a clean pop narrative. The track moves with club-ready heat as the melodic RnB core keeps the single from becoming pure surface shimmer with frustration firing from beneath the glossy production.

His experimental approach makes sense for an artist shaped by performance from an early age. Fontaine trained across music, acting, dance and musical theatre before moving into major live spaces, including Chelmsford City Live, Lytham Green and, more recently, China’s Can You Feel It Live Tour as Dance Swing and MJ Cover.

The sonic reference points orbit Justin Timberlake, The Weeknd, Usher and Chris Brown, while Fontaine’s Afrobeats and trap-soul leanings keep his own lane slick, hazy and the epitome of current.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sensuality turned soulfully sovereign in Sāj’s cinematic RnB debut ‘Yes’

Posted on 14 September 2026

In Yes, sensuality evolves into a form of soulful spirituality as Houston-based singer-songwriter Sāj becomes the epitome of what RnB should be. Pronounced “Sage”, her name already feels fitting for a debut single so steeped in self-possession, desire and emotional control. The release comes loaded with promise, introducing Sāj as an artist ready to make the genre feel timelessly fresh again.

In the smoky gloss of the production, there are hints of modernity, yet within the arrangement, in the way she leaves her harmonies to linger and the mental imagery to heighten emotion, Yes feels as classical as contemporary RnB gets. Through slick grooves and a rhythmic sense of magnetism, Sāj manifests a debut that lands with velvet certainty. The track treats surrender as a chosen act rather than a collapse of power, allowing feminine desire to feel lucidly cinematic and completely owned.

Her expressive vocals glide through atmospheric production with the kind of layered warmth that gives the single its after-dark charge. There is vulnerability, which Sāj tempers with control, letting each phrase feel deliberate without draining the track of heat.

Fans of SZA, Victoria Monét, Jhené Aiko and Snoh Aalegra will unlock a new playlist staple when they dip into the moonlit production of the debut from the artist with a clear point of view, smoky gloss and enough soulful gravity to make her debut feel significant.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Samuel Ashton and the Instincts sent devotion into a cardinal spiral with their roots-reverent RnB Release, ‘No Other Woman’

Posted on 8 September 2026

When you think of RnB, you probably would not instantly envisage rolling rhythms that are as smoky as the vocals, which carry the fiery, fervent heat of Southern rock across vintage-toned textural friction reminiscent of The Black Keys, and that is exactly why Samuel Ashton and the Instincts have taken the scene by storm.

With their latest single, No Other Woman, which follows hits that have racked up hundreds of thousands of streams, the roots-reverent outfit sent passion and devotion into a cardinal spiral of aphrodisiacal intensity that rhythmically strokes the soul in a way that has become a lost art. The arrangement knows exactly how to bring the rough with the smooth, letting guitar friction, full-bodied grooves and Ashton’s soul-loaded vocal heat press against one another until the track feels properly lived-in.

Fans of The Black Keys, Leon Bridges, Alabama Shakes and Nathaniel Rateliff won’t want to sleep on the release, produced by Grammy-winning engineer Ian Dowling. The seminal single arrives ahead of the band’s debut album, Ancestors, which is only going to make grabbing tickets to their sold-out UK shows and front row spots at their festival appearances even harder.

In our nostalgia-fixated era, Samuel Ashton proves why it pays to look away from the superficial sheen of modern RnB and lock into lascivious hits that create friction in all the right places.

No Other Woman is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jazzy neo-pop RnB gets its old-school sweetheart fix in Max Goldhirsch’s ‘Cheetah Print Blues

Posted on 6 September 2026
Max Goldhirsch

With his jazzy neo-pop, RnB-gilded sonic signature and his ability to imagine what it would be like if titans were conduits of soulfully feverish passion instead of muscle-wrought aggression, Max Goldhirsch is set to shake up rhythm and blues in a way that feels way overdue. Forget the neon-washed, oversaturated trend of The Weeknd and his army of assimilators; Max Goldhirsch is taking it right back to the old-school, allowing listeners in a mostly loveless era of ever-increasing digital dating jargon a taste of what it was like to be someone’s sweetheart in the 50s.

The atmosphere in his seminal upcoming single, Cheetah Print Blues, is thick with electricity, emboldened by bluesy grooves that hit all the right swanky, seductive spots as Max Goldhirsch’s vocals refuse to pour soul through a façade. The unique inflections in his voice give the single from his upcoming album an affecting accessibility that’s strong enough to make you forget your crush and fixate over his fiery proclamations of passion instead.

The independent Buffalo, NY singer-songwriter and guitarist has been writing and releasing music since he was 14, and now, while studying music education at the University of Hartford, he’s ready to push his jazz-pop/RnB vision further. Fans of Leon Bridges, Laufey, Bruno Major and early Amy Winehouse will want to keep Goldhirsch on their radar.

Connect with Max Goldhirsch on Instagram to keep up to date with news of his latest releases.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gravity Left the Ballroom: Aaron Spiers Gave Orchestral Jazz Weightless Sublimity in ‘If You Never Come to Me (Inútil Paisagem)’

Posted on 4 September 2026
The Aaron Spiers Jazz Orchestra

People often talk about jazz musicians bringing accessibility to the genre, as though it sits under lock and key, shuttered to the average listener who likes their time signatures predictable. If that old adage must be recycled, it inexplicably applies to The Aaron Spiers Jazz Orchestra. Human Music rejects artifice and automation, then breezes straight into the soul with sublimity so weightless you feel yourself defying gravity.

If You Never Come to Me (Inútil Paisagem) feels almost opaque in its material form; a spectre you can’t quite persuade to remain in focus as it rhythmically drifts past, steeped in the decadence of classical jazz styling while retaining a living emotional centre. Spiers reimagined Jobim’s ballad with a fresh vision and understanding of the temperance tied to longing. The orchestra lowers its centre of gravity, allowing the brass to enter on velvet soles while each chord leaves the expensive perfume of saudade hanging in the air.

The lyrical narrative tantalises context into the sumptuous composition, reflecting the tenderness of passion and its semi-lucid drift through the intersections of desire. Sarah Maud perfectly complements the arrangement with a voice equally made for this score and the silver screen. Her phrasing treats silence as part of the melody, holding each syllable until longing acquires its own temperature.

Before this debut, Spiers spent a decade carrying basslines across arena stages with KISS and Aerosmith. Serious illness halted his performing career, opening space for composition and translating stadium scale into orchestral opulence.

If You Never Come to Me (Inútil Paisagem) is now available to stream on all major platforms. Find your preferred way to listen via the artist’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sierra Velez’s ‘Growing Pains’ carries rite-of-passage pain into the epitome of modern soul

Posted on 30 August 2026

Sierra Velez came into her own in more ways than one on Growing Pains, a soul, funk and blues-driven single that turns emotional exhaustion into a rite-of-passage reckoning. Now based in Texas after moving from New York, Velez uses her sophomore single to sharpen the aura of an artist learning exactly how much space her voice can claim.

Growing Pains sheds the pain of realising that the most selfless people often end up secondary in a world happy to take from them. Rather than reaching for melodrama, Velez lets the scorn within that relatable scar sit inside a groove-rich arrangement where soul warmth, funk movement and bluesy reflection all feed the same emotional fire.

The old-school touch to her sound sidesteps the corridors of dated trends, giving the track a timeless feel while still letting her presence stay freshly forward-facing. Her voice harmonises with sheer sublimity, carrying an inexpressible and equally irreproducible aura that makes the single feel intimate without shrinking its scale.

Fans of Amy Winehouse, Joss Stone, and Erykah Badu’s self-possessed emotional clarity should hear the appeal instantly.

With such a sense of confidence in her authenticity, it is impossible to resist being drawn into Sierra Velez’s orbit. Growing Pains makes her next move feel well worth watching.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast