Browsing Tag

rnb

Gloria – To Be Loved: Old-School RnB Gospel for Romance-Weary Souls

Posted on 5 June 2026

To Be Loved, the latest slow-burning session of old-school RnB from Swedish-British singer-songwriter Gloria, is gospel for the romance weary. Passion shimmers through the minimalist production, where the snares keep their veracity and the harmonies smooth over each note, aiding the overall sense of transcendence within a release that visualises the sublimity of true love with striking clarity.

Gloria clearly has a natural talent for orchestrating sonic worlds from our most visceral sensations. In To Be Loved, that ability glows through restraint; each melodic phrase is placed with intuitive tenderness, amplifying the devotional weight of the single which carries an old-school RnB softness, yet its tenderness feels entirely present, shaped by an artist who understands how intimacy can become its own form of grandeur.

Based in London and creating heartfelt R&B-influenced pop, Gloria Musique is building an ambitious catalogue of 50 songs by the end of 2026. That dedication already feels embedded in To Be Loved, a single that exhibits a songwriter refining her own emotional language with patience, grace, and quiet conviction.

To Be Loved is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Every Kind of Way Carries the Smoke of Stephània’s Slow-Burning R&B Single, into Velvety Cinematic Soul

Posted on 22 May 2026

RnB singer, songwriter, and producer Stephània is a siren of slow-burning soul, and through her delicately diaphanous command over complex emotion, she places herself firmly within the pantheon of modern RnB. In the smooth, cinematic sheen of her latest single, Every Kind of Way, echoes of 90s RnB reverberate through production polished to a crystalline finish.

The momentum never slips as Stephània uses unflinching desire to drive the release, grounding the emotional core of the single in passion rather than possession, giving Every Kind of Way its sense of resolute resonance. The velvety richness wraps around her warm vocal tone with total elegance, while the bluesy guitar solo rounds out the single with a final flare of grown, sensual soul.

Raised in Cyprus by an Irish mother and Cypriot father, the Los Angeles-based artist carries the influence of Michael Jackson, Earth, Wind & Fire, Etta James, Lalah Hathaway, and H.E.R. through a sound rooted in personal storytelling and polished vocal command. After touring with Disney Concerts in China, performing on the Life & Music of George Michael tour, and sharing stages connected to major soul and rock legacies, Stephània possesses the presence of an artist ready for wider recognition.

Every Kind of Way is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Simmer in the Slow-Burn Soul of Wolf Richards’ Latest Single, Take It Slow

Posted on 13 May 2026

Wolf Richards poured RnB, old-school hip-hop, and sun-kissed polyphonic afrobeat catharsis into one simmering pot on Take It Slow, a track that moves with the confidence of an artist who already knows the temperature of his own sound. There is soul in the grain of it, in the pacing, in the way the arrangement opens its arms and lets the temperate groove do the heavy lifting.

The independent instrumentalist and songwriter has always exhibited a superlative ability to find the warmth in nostalgia and reshape it into retro-futuristic neo-soul while holding tight to the rhythmic backbone of hip-hop, but with this release, he reached his steamy zenith.

Take It Slow works as a slow-burn invitation into his world, shifting from gritty, grimy bars into soul-swallowing harmonies with the same rich reach that makes Teddy Swims such a force. The track has that rare alchemic elasticity where one texture never cancels another out. Instead, the elements lean into each other and deepen the pull.

Born in Munich and now based in Brazil, Wolf Richards started out on guitar and bass before studying at GIT in Los Angeles and writing across pop, rock, jazz, fusion, bossa nova, hip-hop, and RnB; that breadth and proof he’s cut his teeth to a razor-sharp level of prestige runs through Take It Slow.

Take It Slow is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

 Review by Amelia Vandergast

MackLordi – Lick That: A Sweat-Slick Hip-Pop Rush of Power, Filth and Temptation

Posted on 9 May 2026

MackLordi staked her claim as the most salacious siren in modern hip-hop with her latest track, Lick That, an urban pop genre blur that hits all the right dominantly empowered and divine spots while riding an old-school RnB hip-pop mash-up beat.

Veering leagues away from the gloss of over-polished production, the up-and-coming independent artist kept her sound aptly filthy, leaving scuzz on the bass hits, giving the track a grimy underground club energy that is infectious enough to replace Viagra.

There is a deliciously brazen command in the way MackLordi handles the beat, letting her presence smoulder through the low-end throb with the kind of authority that turns provocation into an art form. The hook lands with instant impact, the rhythm keeps the temperature climbing, and the whole release carries the sweat-slick confidence of a track built for after-hours speakers and shameless repeat plays.

There are flashes of early Lil’ Kim in the sexual self-possession, Khia in the raw club-floor bite, and a little of Doja Cat’s pop-minded playfulness in the genre fluidity, and pulling it all together is MackLordi’s irreplicable, carnal charisma and her refusal to work with anything but a wide-open sense of identity and appetite.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dreamo ft Gaddy soaked summer in oceanic saturation with their afrobeat RnB release, BRAND NEW

Posted on 28 April 2026

For his latest single, the independent breakthrough artist Dreamo hooked up with Gaddy before soaking the sound of summer in wavy saturation, giving his afrobeat-tinged RnB-adjacent release an oceanic expansiveness while never compromising on the intimacy it pulses through; the dream pop guitars jangle through choral distortion, tempering the trap beat and adding plenty of colour to the production that gently holds Dreamo’s reggaeton-inspired harmonies.

BRAND NEW slips into the bloodstream with humid ease, letting melodic nostalgia and modern elasticity move as one. There are shades of Amaarae in the fluidity, Rema in the melodic lightness, and hints of Cruel Santino in the alte-leaning atmosphere, making BRAND NEW an easy-to-integrate playlist staple for afrobeat RnB fans.

Dreamo’s aural identity comes from a long relationship with music, beginning with rap in his teens before singing became his clearest emotional language. Ghanaian trap, highlife, afrobeats, bedroom pop, melodic rap, and dancehall all feed into his palette, and that breadth gives BRAND NEW its richness. With past highlights including work under Villain Sounds, a place on La Meme Tape: Linksters, a collaboration with Amaarae, and a slot on the Manifestive bill, Dreamo is moving with real momentum.

BRAND NEW 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

‘Backseat’ Finds SHALINI RANI in Full Femme Fatale Force and Soul-Pop Control

Posted on 11 April 2026

Some of the lushest RnB of the decade landed when SHALINI RANI dropped Backseat. The Watford-based British-Indian soul-pop artist has built her voice and vision on her own terms, pulling from jazz, soul and pop while rooting everything in fearless self-expression, cultural truth and the search for belonging. Backseat catches all of that in motion. Blazing with the same unfuckwithable fire and energy as Lola Young, with raspy in all the right places RnB harmonies, SHALINI RANI knows how to bring the hypnotism to her juxtapositions of soul and salaciously spicy femme fatale ferocity.

As a metaphorical refusal to live small and operate from a secondary position, Backseat stirs vindication deep within without any of the emotion feeling forced. SHALINI RANI tempers it all with luxe grooves that grip your rhythmic impulses in a way that leaves you wondering whether they’ll ever let go. There’s sensuality in the movement, steel in the intent, and a self-possessed centre that gives the single its real charge.

That sense of reclamation runs through her wider creative life too, from self-teaching her musical language to advocating for queer and female artists through Haven Studios, while also contributing to The Ivors Academy’s early careers and jazz-focused spaces. Backseat feels like liberation in motion.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast