Browsing Tag

Alternative RnB

Blinding Lights in the Underground: Sco Nixon’s ‘Numb’ Is Retro-Futurist RnB Pop Cinema

Posted on 10 July 2026

The neon lights in Sco Nixon’s latest single, Numb, are even more blinding than The Weeknd’s viral hit. The Indianapolis pop and RnB artist, songwriter and performer locked emotional storytelling into a radio-ready release that carries the shadowy intimacy of the underground.

While the momentum and colour spill from the new wave synth pop melodies and contemporarily hazy production, Sco Nixon locks the amorousness of RnB into his harmonies as they glide across the retro futurist synth lines. You would be hard-pressed to find a more polished hit of RnB pop in the underground, but there is so much more to Nixon than a glossy presence on the airwaves. His voice is a cinematic force in itself, carrying enough control, smoke and sensitivity to make detachment feel dangerously intimate.

Numb is already out on all platforms, with the official music video expanding the tension behind the record through expressive performance and cinematic storytelling. That visual extension makes sense for an artist whose work is rooted in movement, feeling and atmosphere. After performing in multiple cities, including recent London and Los Angeles shows for the Target Concert Series, Nixon sounds ready for a wider spotlight.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Red Rowanne Carried Lo Fi Alt RnB into a Sex Positive Coming of Age Moment with ‘baby that ignition’

Posted on 5 July 2026

Red Rowanne locked her fans into a spacey lo-fi alt RnB odyssey with their latest single, baby that ignition. The way each contrastive layer in the sultry hit creates maximum impact through juxtapositional augmentation is the definition of daringly visceral art. As the harmonies and rap-style verses slide into saturated, wavy distortion, it lends a psychedelic air to the soul of the uninhibited single, making a perennial impression through feeling rather than easy symmetry.

The lack of conventional euphony and melody will mean it is not everyone’s cup of tea, but there is something blissful, almost spiritual, about hearing a soul pour itself into a passionate declaration without posturing. baby that ignition works best when taken as an atmosphere of agency, desire and self-invention, rather than a release asking to be measured against pristine pop architecture.

As a DIY indie artist, Red Rowanne has already moved across confessional indie pop and dream pop while writing through themes such as queer liberation, financial anxiety and hard-won pride. In their latest single, the analogue warmth and hybrid cloud rap texture push against the limits of polish, giving the track a deliberately hazy charge. The vocal delivery shifts between breathy mid-high tones and a sultrier lower register, making the sex positive coming of age theme resonate with intimacy.

baby that ignition is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Psychedelic RnB Finally Found Its Siren in Cameron Wright; ‘Hot and Heavy’ Is His Most Mind-Altering Act of Sonic Seduction To Date

Posted on 30 June 2026

After ruffling libidos as a backing vocalist for Mary J. Blige, Kelly Rowland, Beyoncé and The 1975, Cameron Wright has moved front and centre with their sensually smooth four-octave vocal range. With the latest single, Hot and Heavy, Wright transcends archetypal aphrodisiacal RnB by lacing lust with lashings of spacey psychedelia.

Around the dampened 80s-style drum pads and the melodic trickle of keys, orbital oscillations shimmer around the notes, spilling lush reverb into the contours of the steamy and sweet single as Cameron Wright moves between falsetto and soprano vocals. His vocal command is practically an arcane phenomenon in the way the notes effortlessly glide, and his harmonic ascents feel limitless; every softened phrase carries enough heat to fog the edges of the production.

Rooted in church vocal traditions while drawing inspiration from Queen, Whitney Houston and The Clark Sisters, Wright has built a lane where RnB, rock, gospel and psychedelic atmosphere can move under the grace of one extraordinary voice. Their tone has the elasticity to stretch into celestial registers, then return to something intimate enough to feel whispered directly against your skin. The vocal performance adds the track’s most hypnotically soulful elements through the sheer magnetism of its movement – you’re going to have to experience this for yourselves.

Hot and Heavy is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kobie’s ‘Main Thang’ Carried the Airwaves into a Love Bubble of Retro RnB and Indie-Tinted Soul

Posted on 9 June 2026

Kobie’s Just Friends is the ultimate debut album drop for the true romantics; boundaries blur, steam rises, senses are lost, and soul dominates in the smooth, slow-burning album, which reflects contemporary dynamics through the lens of retro RnB aesthetics. That sensibility reaches its most affecting point in the standout single, Main Thang, written for anyone tired of playing it cool and ready for unconditional, undivided connection.

The Latin guitar flourishes turn up the fire that simmers from Kobie’s harmonies, taking impassioned and pure desire to new euphonic heights. As he visualises the transcendence of letting your heart rule your head, you can feel the hazy love bubble wrap around you, softening the edges of hesitation until surrender starts to sound inevitable.

Built from underground culture and internet-era artistry, Kobie moves with the awareness of an independent artist, curator, and creative entrepreneur shaping more than a release cycle. His world spans music, visuals, live experiences, digital storytelling, and direct audience connection, giving Main Thang a sense of intimacy with serious cultural reach. Hip-hop, alternative textures, and modern youth culture ripple beneath the RnB romance, while the production keeps the focus on emotional immediacy.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

RnB meets Alt-Electronica in Roger K’s Mona Lisa, and the Sound of Summer Has Never Been Sweeter

Posted on 23 April 2026

Through his discography, Roger K has become an RnB renegade as he finds new intersections of soul-driven, rhythmically evocative sound to traverse with his releases. In his latest single, Mona Lisa, the singer-songwriter reached his fusionist zenith; fusing the heat and passion of old school 80s RnB with the mellow magnetic depth of afro-beat inspired percussion and the transcendence of chill house.

Roger K came one step closer to building his legacy as one of the most successful RnB experimentalists of this generation with this seminal single; it practically demands to become a dominant soundtrack to the 2026 summer; it thrums with desire, it oozes bougie bar style, and it reminds you of what it means to reject inhibition and embrace life with as much passion as your soul can stand to hold.

There is an easy sensuality in the way the groove rolls forward, with every percussive accent and velvet-toned vocal phrase adding to the late-night intoxication of the atmosphere. The old-school RnB spirit feels reverently preserved. Usher and Boyz II Men feel like natural touchstones in the lineage, yet Roger K keeps the chemistry personal and steeped in his life-worn experience and candour.

Based in Johannesburg, Roger K refuses to limit his influences, genre-wise, but geographically too, as a producer and songwriter. His smooth vocals, soulful storytelling, global rhythms, and Sri Lankan heritage reach listeners from South Africa to Indonesia through a sound shaped for movement, reflection, and feeling.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Woozy Cabaret Pop and Dreamily Baroque RnB Create a Kaleidoscope of Y2K Pop Nostalgia in Analine’s ‘Even Love Has an End’

Posted on 18 April 2026

Analine pushed the limits of RnB aesthetics into dreamily baroque, playfully obscure territory with Even Love Has an End, taken from her EP, A Better End. Right from the intro, cabaret pop pianos and percussion that pulses as though it’s coin-operated drive the release into a sly, theatrical sway, giving the track a strange old-world glamour while keeping its emotional centre bruised and immediate.

There are experimental throwbacks to the kind of heart-wrenchers Christina Aguilera once gave pop, but rather than leaning on Y2K nostalgia for easy sentiment, Analine drenches this tour de force of eccentricity in a woozy, whimsical aura that ensnares you as soon as you step into her world.

The production feels half-curtain call, half-fever dream, all while letting the ache at the centre of the song stay fully visible. That balance between playful obscurity and genuine emotional force is hard to pull off without tipping into affectation, but Analine makes it feel natural. If artists got to the top of the charts on authentic creative talent alone, she’d be preparing for a headline stadium tour. If Even Love Has an End goes viral, there’ll be no stopping her.

Even Love Has an End is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lil B’Shorty suspended ‘Favorite Girl’ cloud rap grief and reverb-heavy RnB sincerity

Posted on 18 April 2026

Lil B’Shorty dared to deliver an extended atmospheric prelude of reverb-heavy pensive piano notes in the age of the instant hook with his debut single, Favorite Girl, a synthesis of cloud rap and contemporary R&B, which paints the up-and-coming artist as an emissary of unfiltered sincerity.

Working in the space between alternative RnB, trap-soul and emotional storytelling, Lil B’Shorty has already started shaping a lane for himself through songs rooted in love, growth and the kind of late-night introspection that leaves nowhere to hide.

The slow-burn debut feels as intimate as a diary entry in its minimal post-production and the sheer force of candid romanticism. It draws you into the melancholia of grief as Lil B’Shorty keeps to the colder tones in the RnB kaleidoscope to hammer home the isolation tearing through the lyrics, which refuse to hide behind pretence.

There are shades of cloud rap’s suspended atmosphere running through the track, but the emotional directness keeps everything grounded in the sting of real absence. It is the sweetness of that vulnerability that gives Favorite Girl its ability to send shockwaves of resonance through you. It’s late-night headphone aural gold.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Salah Dion Holds Seraphic Sincerity and Modern Loneliness in the RnB retro-modernism of ‘All I Really Want Is’

Posted on 15 April 2026

Desire for a fully sated soul consumes Salah Dion’s third RnB release, All I Really Want Is. From the opening stretch of this slow-burning, trap-tempered retro-modernist rendition of RnB, Dion makes it plain that we haven’t seen the last of the great romantics yet. There’s an ache running through the single that feels painfully current, speaking to a culture hooked on the dopamine churn of dating apps while still starving for something real. Dion steps into that emotional gap with real tenderness, letting the song hold space for longing without dressing it up as something cooler or less vulnerable than it is.

Underneath the surface of disconnection, Dion reminds us that our heartstrings are still tuned to the meaning of passion, and in all of its seraphic sincerity, the track lands as a testament to that truth. His buttery smooth vocal lines carry the weight of solitude with grace, easing into the production with the kind of intimacy that makes the listener feel seen rather than merely serenaded. There’s warmth in the restraint, and conviction in the softness. For anyone feeling cut adrift in the modern romantic mess of it all, this one will hit home.

All I Really Want Is is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

SAHVVV Became the Definitive Siren of Soul in the Moody Vulnerability of her Debut RnB Single, ‘Dangerous’

Posted on 29 March 2026

SAHVVV became the definitive siren of soul with her debut single, Dangerous. After arriving on 13 March, the release introduced an artist with a sharp sense of mood, movement, and emotional exposure, while proving she already knows how to leave a mark on listeners who crave substance in their RnB. At a stage where visibility matters, Dangerous makes a strong case for itself on musical merit alone, cutting through on atmosphere, conviction, and the kind of voice that knows exactly how to handle desire when it curdles into damage.

RnB timelines blur in the era-fluid, moody earworm, which pushes the evolution of the genre forward. By taking the iconic harmonies and attitude of 90s RnB and distorting them with glitchy electronic bursts of reverberance, Dangerous unravels as a triumph that finds the perfect equilibrium between vulnerability and ferocity. As an exposition on the pain and adrenaline of falling for someone who will give you pain to numb, it hits all the right marks while elucidating the agony of slipping between the sheets with someone who makes the act one of emotive warfare.

If this is what SAHVVV has delivered right out of the gate, plenty of listeners will be waiting, and a bit feral, for what comes next.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Yash Kapoor flooded retro‑futurist RnB pop with hyper 8‑bit intimacy in ‘Secrets In Your Eyes’

Posted on 5 January 2026

The retro-futurist sonic architect, Yash Kapoor, blazed beyond the RnB synth pop artists on cruise control as they meander through neon hues and bruises with his latest single, Secrets In Your Eyes, which injects a rush of hyper 8-bit euphoria into new wave synth lines.

There’s a ferocity to the euphonic rhythm section that takes a piece of Kapoor’s impassioned soul and kicks a cadence of visceralism into it as synaesthesia-inducing synths and phasers oscillate around the dreamy distortion-laden vocals, which dig deeper than lust, capturing an intimacy that’s enough to give you your own cosmic fix of oxytocin.

Accompanied by a visualiser, which enables the middle-eight reach a climax of experimental cinematography as the synth lines are stripped right back to expose a frenetic heartbeat, and the video captures Kapoor as he glitches through derealisation before the melody swings back into full force for the outro, it’s clear that Kapoor is intent on breaking through the alt RnB kaleidoscope with unparalleled authenticity.

As a Los Angeles-based producer, composer, and multidisciplinary artist, Kapoor doesn’t just bring a sound—he brings a world. Shaped by time in studios with major players like DaHeala and forged through his own cinematic instincts, Kapoor’s approach is one of precision and vulnerability. His solo material pulls you into that tension, where emotional exposure meets the full force of electronic depth.

Secrets In Your Eyes is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast