It feels like it’s been forever since we last checked in on Lucy Whittaker. In the three intervening years since she smashed onto our radar with Change Your Mind, Whittaker has perfected her craft and honed the pop-R&B mood of her music. Who’s Gonna Know is a testament to how far she’s come, in three sweet minutes of charged electronic pop with smooth vocals.

Whittaker’s vocal performance is on top form, sounding sleepily seductive and passionately sensual in equal measure. Alongside this, the instrumentation relentlessly pushes forward with chugging electronic beats punctuated by occasional synth swells. This is all before up and coming rapper Yizzy drops in to break the track down and spin a lyrical yarn that leads us to a powerful closing refrain. It’s a well-structured, well-executed single that proves Whittaker has the potential to make a real impact.

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The Poppy project has been an ongoing interest of ours since we first caught wind of it around the time of Bubblebath last year. At the time, Poppy was still under her initial moniker of That Poppy and was set on producing songs that sounded like your standard radio-friendly pop with cynical undertones. Bubblebath was quite innocent and less cynical, likely due to its release on Island Records, and was clearly a calling card of phase one.

Poppy’s debut album, Poppy.Computer, dropped last year and, followed by her cover of Gary Numan’s Metal recently, it was all moving in a straightforward line that built on her growing online persona. She was too robotic and weird to be pop, but still with pop undertones, and messages that veered between cultish and robotic.

In A Minute, the newest release and first to come from the upcoming Am I A Girl? album, is a different beast entirely. Instrumentally, it seems to float between strangely psychedelic synths, bubblegum pop tones, pop-rap percussions and R&B vibes. Vocally, Poppy at once sounds like she’s taking inspiration from rappers with pop aspects like Nicki Minaj – not least because the middle section feels a bit like Beez In The Trap – and also like shes continuing her own style of reserved pop.

In a strange step forward for Poppy, one that sounds less cynical than previous attempts but also with the lyrical simplicity and vacuousness that some songs on her debut suffered with. It’ll be interesting how emblematic this is of the upcoming album, but it’s hard to see where this fits into the narrative the project has been building lately.

For the last few years, the idea of the summer soundtrack has pretty exclusively been reserved for either electronically enhanced pop tracks with EDM aspects, or late night R&B tracks as something of a curveball. 2018 might just be the year that things change though. Quinn Soular has outdone himself on his latest offering Ovah and Ovah, a reggae-pop anthem with Ziggi Recado.

Built on a traditional reggae guitar rhythm with flourishes of electro synth fizzles and pop structures, the track is an amalgamation of the finer points of several genres. Recado’s vocals bring a naturally reggae vibe to the song, while Soular excels at bringing the R&B emotion with his velvet smooth vocals. It’s a feelgood, carefree banger set to win hearts this summer, so you may as well embrace it below.

Love is a balancing act and relationships need compromise on both sides at times. That’s the slightly unromantic reality of modern love, but it’s also a reality that has inspired one of the strongest, most moving fresh R&B singles of 2018 to date.

Quinn Soular‘s Halfway is all about this compromise and the desire to meet in the middle with a significant other. This isn’t a foreign subject to most artists, but Soular manages to make it his own.

The lyrics outline a resiliant and optimistic plea for compromise, which Soular’s vocals deliver stunningly well; his voice rings with a deep emotion that sits between introverted defeatism and triumphant passion. It’s an unconventional balance, but it’s one that almost legitimises the track.

And that’s all without talking about the instrumentation, which is infectiously rhythmic with all the makings of a massive summer R&B hit. Combining sub-heavy 808 sounds and the standard electric piano sound, the real magic of the track comes from the flourishes added by djembe drums and marimba. It’s an interesting subversion of the typical R&B sounds with less conventional instruments, which meld with the rich vocal melodies to create a layered sound that could easily have been a cut on More Life.

The balancing act of love isn’t for everyone, but it’s worked wonders for Quinn. Halfway oozes with the musical maturity and expertise that you seldom find in an artist’s second single. Quinn is set for big things, and this track is only the beginning.

Her’s have gone from strength to strength in the past four years, affirming themselves as one to watch. But those who did watch noticed that the band’s sound developed and transformed during those years, stepping slightly further away from the curious slack-pop that defined them once upon a time.

With their debut album confirmed for release this summer, the band has taken the initiative to try and throwback to their original sound with latest single Low Beam. Offering up a modern take on a retro RnB vibe, the track is a return to the duo’s 80s jangle pop, slack art rock origins to ultimately reassert the curious oddball mythos that made the duo so magnetic in the first place.

But alongside this, the band is taking lyrical aim right at the culture of toxic masculinity. Low Beam focusses very much on the pitfalls and traps of modern masculinity, with the band also stating that the song is “a commentary on toxic masculinity, viewed through the eyes of a biker who feels alienated by the gangs in the scene, without feeling any weaker. He’s a lone wolf type character.”

A haunting force within Toronto’s diverse music scene, William Darc dives into the darkness with his enigmatic R&B stylings.

That notion is readily apparent on new track My Drug, a brooding reinterpretation of Justin Timberlake’s timeless My Love that ups the risqué with raw, provocative vocals and thunderous production to match. There’s not too much to say on this track; you can hear it below and see for yourself how easy it is to get addicted.

Beautifully played guitar melodies and R&B themed drum patterns take Something About Us by Daft Punk to a whole new level of chilled out. If you need something to relax you from a demanding week of work, this is our prescription to relieve your symptoms.

Australian based phenom, Mickey Kojak begins his rendition of the classic off slowly with some muted percussion and chords. Mickey’s soft vocals gently come in harmonizing beautifully with the melody. This feature elevates his cover to the next level by inputting a more human feel to the ambiance of the track.  Mickey then transitions to a wailing guitar that blends with the beat perfectly, rounding out his stellar production.

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Follow Mickey Kojak on Soundcloud.

If the first track is the hardest one to get right, then Mitch is set for big things in the R&B scene. The artist has come out of nowhere to drop his debut single Jersey, a contemporary R&B track with 90s throwback sheen and a romantic flair.

Sitting in at just over two minutes, it’s not the hard-hitting statement of intent that you might expect of a debut single in this scene. However, those two minutes are all it takes for Mitch to showcase his intuitive grasp of song structure and his well-woven lyrical flow.

In many ways, Jersey is a taster, but it’s enough for Mitch to completely change your mind and prove that he’s worth more of your time in the future.

It is undoubtedly true at this point that, in about eight months time, there will be a significant increase in the number of reported childbirths. Chances are, they’ll mostly be traced back to one common cause: Honors dropped the seductive and silky smooth alt-R&B gem Valleys.

Just in case you missed your chance to conceive the first time around, February 2018 marks the second coming as Honors have shared the song’s music video. It doesn’t quite reflect the same sordid pleasure as you might expect from a song with such a slinking guitar riff or velvetine vibe, but it still makes for an interesting spectacle.

Offering a retro-feeling split screen displaying sultry miming on one side and natural imagery on the other, it’s an entrancing video with just the right pacing to let your mind run away with the song.

With more than a decade of experience as a collaborator and producer in the musical world, Cimo Frankel has had his fair share of claims to fame. In recent years, Frankel has made a move under his own moniker, notably with the tropical dub-kissed R&B single Occasional Love in 2017. Knowing that good things shouldn’t be left to gather dust, the act has revived the track for 2018 with a re-release.

It’s a sun-soaked tropical hit fit for that perfect summer getaway, albeit a few months early. Filled to the brim with luscious Caribbean-styled instrumentation and techniques akin to that of ZHU, Kygo or Petit Biscuit, Frankel has successfully evolved this essence into something completely of his own. That is, of course, paradise-pop with laid back percussion grooves, a dub-esque rhythm and graciously seductive vocal work amidst a crystal white beach.