Browsing Tag

RnB Singer Songwriter

Takara Let Her Soul Speak in the Ethereal Sensuality of her Afrobeat RnB Release, Pillow Talk

Posted on 20 June 2025

Slip between the sheets with one of the most sensually ethereal up-and-coming artists on any side of the globe with Takara’s latest single, Pillow Talk. With smooth, seductive harmonies resounding across organic percussive fluidity, the release enlivens as it entrances, presenting Takara as a paradoxical powerhouse and contextualising the ease of her transcendence to the top of the RnB scene.

Rather than painting by numbers within the genre, Takara pulls multi-continental influence, ensuring that Pillow Talk hits as hard as possible for as many people as possible. The African rhythms tease the origin of us all into the mix, giving the hypnotic release an almost primal sense of crossover appeal.

Originally from Adelaide and now based in Los Angeles, Takara’s artistic trajectory has already carried her from the Australian underground to international acclaim. With half a million followers and over half a billion streams to her name, her fusion of dreamy RnB and rhythmic Afrobeat has secured her airplay on stations from KXLU to Triple J Unearthed. Her sound is grounded in intimacy but always reaching beyond borders, whether through her autobiographical YouTube series Takara TV, her global collaborations, or her performances at showcases like SXSW and Sounds Australia.

Takara’s rise hasn’t relied on spectacle or pastiche, but on her sonic instinct and global fluency, both of which simmer through every second of Pillow Talk.

Pillow Talk is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Carlton Garceleon Fed His Libido to the Lust-Laced Rhythms of Wavy RnB Pop in Distraction

Posted on 19 June 2025

Multidimensional in sound, mythos, and movement, Carlton Garceleon constructed his own garden of sonic temptations with his RnB pop single, Distraction. It’s a potent shot of sonic seduction that few will be impervious to; it feels as though Garceleon threw his entire libido into the vocal harmonies, yet there’s no trace of the cheap and tawdry hypersexualisation that has tragically become shorthand in the genre. Soul tempers the lustful energy until it simmers in equilibrium with sincerity, resulting in a fever dream of desire that keeps one foot rooted in artistic integrity and the other in a bed of hedonistic heat.

The snares slap with brutal precision through the haze of distortion and reverb. Saturated Latin guitars add a flicker of sunlight before it’s consumed again by the lo-fi aesthetic. It’s woozy and chameleonic, yet directed with such passionate volition that it leaves no ambiguity over the heights Garceleon is reaching at this stage in his career.

After gaining over 15,000 streams across 125 countries and turning his catalogue into the Garceleon Cinematic Universe, Carlton is building a legacy where each single is a spell and each visual element maps the terrain. With no label, no team, and no shortcuts, he’s scripting his aural narrative by conjuring characters like Morpheus the Dragon, Cerulean the Alien, and Oberon the Angel, but with Distraction, he doesn’t need fantasy to spark the ignition. The passion is more than enough.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

BRIEL the Artist Drifted into a New Soul Dimension with BLUR, the Alt-RnB Serenade to Emotional Ghosting

Posted on 16 June 2025

BRIEL the Artist turned a hollowing sense of emotional dislocation into an alt-RnB siren’s call with their latest single, BLUR. Produced in collaboration with brokebwoy, the track leans into a duality of smooth torment and quirked-out levity. Every bar comes cushioned in velvet, yet weighted with enough introspection to crush the psyche if you sit with it too long. Instead of relying on vocal acrobatics or histrionic dramatics, BRIEL exercises a patience in delivery that echoes the paralysis felt when you’re trying to claw through silence to reach someone who has already started leaving the room in their mind.

As the track threads through woozy synth glitches and percussion with clipped sharpness, BRIEL steps between two selves. The late-stage romantic unravelling is narrated both by the ever-earnest BRIEL and his alter ego, P!MP B, who shuffles in as the cheeky shadow self trying to breathe levity into suffocating voids. It’s that tension between despair and forced humour that cuts the deepest; it all feels brutally real, but nothing in BLUR ever begs for sympathy. It just shows you the ache in hi-def.

Pulled from the upcoming debut mixtape, DAMN GENESIS, BLUR introduces BRIEL not as a facsimile of the old school, nor a preacher of post-genre theory, but as someone who takes cues from the soul and sculpts his own sonic altar. This is confessionalism channelled through sonic architecture so twisted, it teeters on avant-garde. Fans of RnB who crave vulnerability without showboating will want to keep BRIEL firmly on their radar.

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

– Review by Amelia Vandergast

Luan Luan Set Fire to the Fear of Confrontation in the Soul-Spiked Scorn of ‘Nonsense’

Posted on 4 June 2025

And here, Luan Luan’s affecting aural aesthetic never compromises their ability to place substance above style; case in point, the latest single, Nonsense. Lyrically, the single scathingly refuses to take any prisoners and allows some of that fiery energy to sizzle through the peaks in the production and the animated heights of Luan Luan’s harmonies, but Nonsense never feels close to overwhelming. Everything is tempered by the arrangement’s smooth cultivation and the playfully soulful presence of Luan Luan, which is taking the singer-songwriter to the alt indie RnB pantheon—not through innovation for the sake of it, but by the way they organically destroy the genre’s pervasive monotony. For everyone who has reached their limit, Nonsense is the release that will alchemise away antagonism.

Originally penned in the emotional chaos of moving from Madrid to Brighton at 18, while caught in the fray of a toxic relationship, Nonsense is one of the earliest entries in Luan’s catalogue, but it took until 2024 and a full band recording session to finalise its definitive form. It also marks the first time Luan’s saxophone makes it into the mix, and its bright, biting timbre makes the sting all the sharper.

Luan Luan’s debut EP, expected later this year, promises to carry on what Nonsense starts: replacing silence with defiance, fear with swagger, and polishing lyrical scars until they shine.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Janessa Turns Emotional Whiplash into Soul-Centred Geometry in the RnB Mosaic ‘Push & Pull’

Posted on 27 May 2025

With Push & Pull, Nashville-born, Liverpool-based artist Janessa takes the conflicting emotional trajectories of love and constructs a funk-wrapped, soul-drenched sonic sugar for the pill of being torn between distance and closeness within a dynamic you know is ebbing away at the colour of your world.

Written in the immediate aftermath of a breakup and conceived in one cathartic sitting with producer Jacob Weinreich and guitarist Josh Phillips, Push & Pull captures the raw clarity that floods in when the emotional fog finally lifts. With Janessa’s timelessly sanctifying harmonies easing you into her lyrical reckoning, the track swells with a cinematic warmth, yet it never sacrifices the jagged truth of the experience.

As the moody textures thicken around her intimate vocal performance, the kaleidoscope of tones brings relief to the tension without dulling its emotional weight. There’s honesty, but also groove. There’s melancholy, but also a lightness that finds its form in the funky polyphonic beats and synths. If you’re in the same languid space Janessa was when she penned the single, dig into Push & Pull and embrace the sanctuary built within it.

Now 23, Janessa has spent over a decade shaping her musical sensibility, first through early performances in Nashville, and now through her continued songwriting evolution at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts. Her RnB-laced sound pairs vulnerability with melodic precision, grounding her heartbreak narratives with the unmistakable authenticity of lived experience.

Push & Pull is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dekovian Rashad Scorched Through the Conflict of Heartbreak in the Soul-Mined Resonance of ‘Torn’

Posted on 17 May 2025

Dekovian Rashad unravelled the visceral fallout of romantic warfare in his latest single, ‘Torn’; a sonic storyboard of conflicted heartstrings, written through retro R&B aesthetics and polished contemporary production, as a courtesy of Thomas Coleman and Chris Byron, who stepped in to mix the scorned vignette of how serenades can all too easily lead to dodging grenades in the minefield of the soul.

The 23-year-old Athens, Georgia-based artist proves that when musical legacy runs through the bloodline, it ignites the creative spark until it starts an inferno. Raised in a family of musicians, Dekovian soaked up every note of soul, rhythm, and harmony from his grandfather and great uncles before finding his voice at seven and carving out his own blueprint in the genre. Inspired by the emotional architecture of Brandy, Aaliyah, Usher, and Tank, Rashad etched out his sound through the mould of tradition while letting his own vulnerability sculpt the contours.

With the resonance of the layered R&B harmonies and the guitar riffs that cut in towards the outro, ‘Torn’ carves through the decades while staying timeless. The outro sample of a voicemail saying, “I wish it was me”, amplifies the weight of the impassioned track, which effortlessly triumphs in illustrating how matters of the heart can swallow us whole.

‘Torn’ is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gbogboade Sculpted a Soulful Monument to the Frequency of Love’s Fragility with ‘Where Do We Go?’

Posted on 28 April 2025

With the organic percussive textures tapping against the iridescent synth lines, in all of its questioning, Where Do We Go? is an instrumental study in contrasts as Gbogboade exhibits how his passion and adoration remain unflinching in the face of uncertainty. With expressions of jazz and spoken word recordings which run just as smooth as his harmonies, the track is a complete exposition of what it means to love in the presence of doubt, not letting it slip through fear of loss, but instead, allowing your soul to remain steadfast in the presence of limitless possibilities.

Drawing on his Nigerian roots and his London experiences, Gbogboade pours his dual heritage into his sonic signature. Known for his seamless infusion of soul, jazz, hip-hop, and Afro-rooted rhythms, he creates sonic worlds that pulse with lived reality. Influenced by D’Angelo, Solange, Kendrick Lamar, and Burna Boy, his music refuses to shy away from vulnerability, strength, and the tension that pulls between the two.

Where Do We Go? serves as the centrepiece of his forthcoming EP, a three-track reflection tracing love, uncertainty, and transformation. By anchoring the composition with 85 BPM rhythms and layering in analog warmth, Gbogboade offers a rich, emotionally charged soundscape that honours both his Lagos upbringing and his diasporic evolution.

Where Do We Go? is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Susan G became the epitome of Seattle soul with ‘Don’t Look Like You’

Posted on 25 April 2025
Susan G

With her old soul and fresh presence stretching far beyond Seattle, Susan G has the kind of vocal firepower and lyrical acuity that instantly turns passive listening into emotional reckoning. Her latest 60s soul-esque single, Don’t Look Like You, is the perfect primer for her deep-cutting emotive style. The smoky, smooth, and fever-swaddled staccato rhythms refuse to let comfort slip into the mix. Your rhythmic pulses will stand to full attention as the raw honesty of her lyricism sinks in.

The reprise of “I don’t know what love is if it looks like you” sears the psyche. It’s a line built to hit anyone who’s ever clawed their way out of a relationship that made them question not only their worth but the very definition of love. Instead of falling into the performative pitfalls of empowerment anthems, Susan G offers something more vital—an exorcism of confusion and coldness, giving a voice to anyone who’s been left picking up the pieces of their gaslit mind.

Susan George—performing under her moniker Susan G—may run a cutting-edge marketing agency by day, but in the studio, she’s a soul-revivalist with a modern R&B twist, weaving poetic truth through every note. Her sound reverberates for the truth-seekers and deep feelers who need something heavier than radio-ready gloss.

Don’t Look Like You is now available to stream on all major platforms. Find your preferred way to listen on the artist’s website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Riding the Whip of Want: Emdee Puts Lust on a Leash in ‘Tame’

Posted on 23 April 2025

With a teasing prelude that feels more like foreplay than an intro, Tame defies its title as Emdee fuses fetish with soul, sonic seduction with salaciously sharp aphrodisiacal elements. With pop and contemporary RnB serving as his playroom, Emdee is in his element in Tame, which utilises playful teasing staccato rhythms until the momentum of the single starts to flow around guitar lines amplified to leave the listener hot under the collar.

With his mix of light and dark, it’s clear that Emdee knows how to bring the rough with the smooth while never being vanilla; his butter wouldn’t melt vocal lines and the tension built in the guitars is enough to leave the airwaves on its knees in submission.

After carving out his name in rap and drill, the Birmingham-born, Coventry-based artist strips it all back to lean fully into melody and desire. There’s nothing tentative about this transition—it’s a controlled burn into sultry new territory, driven by his taste for the provocative and his instinct for sonic balance. Influenced by the likes of The Weeknd and Ginuwine, he’s taken the slow jam blueprint and scratched his initials into it with slick rhythmic restraint and a vocal delivery steeped in self-possession.

Now or Never is set to push this evolution further, but Tame already signals the leash has snapped—and Emdee’s instincts are on full display.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Meher Turns Longing into Lush Catharsis on ‘When Flowers Bloom’

Posted on 9 April 2025

With When Flowers Bloom, the standout single from her debut EP End of Winter, Meher invites you to witness the thaw. The Punjabi RnB artist curates reflective states steeped in atmosphere and intentional vulnerability. Her ambient textures don’t drift aimlessly; they hang in the air with purpose, wrapping around vocals that shimmer with soul and subtlety.

The first thing that grips you about When Flowers Bloom is the soulful, sensuous seraphic timbre, but as the track progresses and picks up steam, it’s the narrative spun throughout the fervently performed yet quiescently projected vocals. It’s a paradoxical sonic spell that no one will be impervious to as you’re invited down the rabbit hole of Meher’s world of reverb and resonance. As the lyrics illustrate a protagonist who dares to fulfil desire and take bold risks in life, the instrumentals prove that she lives just as fearlessly through sound.

Written during a period of transition and healing, End of Winter is a sonic sanctuary stitched together by ambient warmth and lyrical intimacy. Meher doesn’t overstate; she lets restraint speak volumes. Through softness, she tells stories of distance, identity, and the quiet courage of becoming. Her sound creates a climate for connection, one that’s already drawing in thousands of listeners without industry scaffolding.

When Flowers Bloom is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast.