As I’ve grown older, I’ve become more and more enamored with the R&B genre. When done right, it can manifest immense passion and vulnerability without sounding corny. To me, the best R&B songs can simultaneously bring a vibe and a message, while also tapping into core human emotions with grace, suave, sultriness or all of the above.
In this column, I recommend three R&B tracks that I’ve been listening to. Even though it is a different week with different songs, the setting has not changed. I’m still driving down I-91 in my 2004 Ford Taurus, which is somehow still chugging along after all these years.
Like last time, feel free to email me with anything you have been listening too recently.
Fana Hues: “Apple Picking”
It’s almost fall, so why not. I found the Pasadena R&B singer-songwriter in 2021 thanks to a tweet from Tyler, the Creator. Since Tyler listens to two hours of new music a day, I had to listen, because I know he has a good ear.
Since that moment, I’ve been captured by Fana’s understated elegance and her ability to bring a modern wrinkle to the classic neo soul sound in various ways.
“Apple Picking,” which is part of Hues’ underrated spring album Moth, reminds me to live in the moment and to enjoy the current rapture whenever I can. Hues mellifluously croons for something good until she basks in the euphoria of finding it for a quick second: “Never had nobody/To make me feel like this/I’ll stay in this bliss, in this bliss.” The shift is like the leaves changing color.
Listen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSKLu4vY14k
Ravyn Lenae: “Love Me Not”
This is easily one of the best pop/R&B tracks of the year and it’s mainly because Lenae encapsulates all my favorite core tenants of the genre. The swagger, the suave and, to a certain extent, the sultriness are all conspicuous qualities on the lead single off the Chicagoan’s new album, “Bird’s Eye.” In other words, it kicks.
Lenae is stuck in purgatory; ambivalent about the situation she finds herself in with her on-and-off partner. In the wrong hands, the track could sound boring or trite, but Lenae’s normally lissome vocals are blasted through an old school filter to help provide an edginess and propulsive energy within her fluctuation of feelings.
In the end, she hopes that the person who “holds [her] tight and lets [her] go” will eventually join her in overcoming this ambivalence.
Listen for yourself here: https://tinyurl.com/w2fxar6y
Corey Lingo: “Meant 2 Be”
Lingo is one of the early pioneers of the pluggnb sound, a specific subgenre of rap/R&B music that mixes lush R&B melody with minimalist trap beats to make a chill and laidback sound for the fly listeners.
On his newest album “For What It’s Worth,” Lingo maintains that sound and vibe sonically, but instead of acquiescing to its easygoing nature, he uses it as a springboard for heart-on-your-sleeve singing that feels like an open wound was left unchecked.
This type of music may not be everyone: it can definitely be a little too earnest or treacly, yet I can’t help but admire Lingo’s dedication to bringing that type of intensity to the forefront of this subgenre.
Out of all the tracks, “Meant 2 Be” is a highlight for me because he sounds like a cooler version of Chris Brown.
Check it out: https://tinyurl.com/muw5pcn3.
