SYBS is one of those artists who, despite working in the contemporary world of soulful, R&B infused pop, also manages to remind us of a host of great names from Roberta Flack to Witney Houston to Toni Braxton. And that, of course, is the secret isn’t it? It often isn’t really about inventing new genres, or gene-splicing musical styles which have no business getting that intimate, that rarely works anyway. No, the art is to create music which is both of the here and now and yet subtly references the past. A blend of the fresh and familiar, new but just with a slight touch of nostalgia.
The Sweetest Taboo is a taste of how the whole R&B, pop-soul and funk genres thread their way through the modern commercial world. They build their sounds through the technologies available, clothe themselves with dance drives and pop enthusiasm and take their sound out of the niche markets of the past and spread them to a wide range of musical movers and discerning pop pickers and artist like SYBS are certainly leading that charge.
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