After launching Say It Like You Mean It with an insistent demand for honesty, Stephan Leroy Folkes has returned to eclipse every surface-level sentiment in It’s All Within Time (Travelling Through the Stars). Where the debut came with sharp confrontation, the sophomore single is steeped in cosmic introspection and scorched-soul sonics that unravel through alt-soul-pop with funk-slicked edges and ethereal atmospherics.
Folkes has dialled up the soul, beguile, and eccentric electricity up to 11, welcoming his ever-growing fan following into the epitome of impassioned visceralism. With the cosmic underpinnings to the alt-soul-pop serenade and Folkes’ falsetto vocal timbre surpassing the scintillation of Michael Jackson with the aching vibrato that hits in the chorus, the single is a lesson on what it means to truly go beyond surface level with emotions.
From the first synth-streaked beat to the last breathy note, the track tests the tensile strength of resilience, using star-bound metaphors to map the personal collisions that shake us into shape. The Leytonstone-born artist never plays it safe—nor should he. Born from brushes with death, his sound is living proof that survival can sound transcendent. With nods to Prince, Stevie Wonder, and Billie Eilish woven into his genre-defiant fingerprint, Stephan sidesteps imitation and plants himself firmly in the present moment of music with a sound entirely his own.
It’s All Within Time (Travelling Through the Stars) is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.
Review by Amelia Vandergast