Five R&B Songs for the Emotionally Unavailable
This week features the worst date Thundercat’s ever been on, Jordan Ward’s financial advice, Mýa’s relationship ultimatum, late-night vibes from Terrace Martin, and Tom Misch writes for his sisters.
Welcome to the weekly Soulpolitan feature, where we highlight a handful of new tracks catching our attention, along with others you should check out. Every song this week features someone avoiding something they should probably face. Mýa knows her relationship is dying and can't get her man to admit it. Thundercat knows he's the problem but can’t stop asking why she looks annoyed. Jordan Ward knows his girl might go broke if he doesn’t say something. Terrace Martin and Blxst seem content to mumble through life. Tom Misch is fine, actually. Five songs (plus more).
Thundercat, “I Did This to Myself” feat. Lil Yachty
With Thundercat, he has always been the guy who’ll spend a whole album mooning over women who don’t want him back. Drunk, 2017’s funk-prog sprawl, had him crying about his ex on songs named after her. On “Dragonball Durag,” he tried to seduce someone by bragging about his anime merch. The role fits him. Virtuoso bass player, session guy for Kendrick and Flying Lotus, romantic disaster. On his third single from his long-awaited fifth album, Distracted, “I Did This to Myself recruits Lil Yachty, another guy who’s never quite fit the mold he was supposed to, and the two of them spend three minutes failing to understand why a woman won’t give them the time of day.
The beat stays bouncy and loose while everything around it curdles. Thundercat whines through the first half, already defeated before the date starts. “Girl, you look annoyed/Like you’ve already had enough.” Does he remind her of an ex? Is he paying too much? When Yachty takes over, Thundercat can’t stop muttering underneath him, asides like “Oh, you a weird chick, you like crystals and shit” and “But you gotta admit, she’s a bad bitch,” like a guy who knows he should shut up but can’t. Yachty cleared his whole schedule. She’s still acting busy. Her Instagram modeling isn’t even a real job. “Takin’ those pics in a bra shouldn’t jam your schedule. We made plans twice and it’s unsuccessful. I’m mad.” The grievances stack until he arrives somewhere the song can’t recover from. “‘Cause the more that I look in your face, you look like your dad/And it’s hard picturin’ him with a big ol’ ass.” The groove keeps going. Neither of them stops to wonder if maybe she’s annoyed because she’s stuck on a date with them. — Brandon O’Sullivan
Jordan Ward, “Themselves”
Here’s the situation: your girl just quit her job because you told her you’d take care of everything. Now she’s home, bored, spending money she doesn’t have, and you’re watching it happen from the road wondering why you ever opened your mouth. Jordan Ward has seen this play out. Maybe he’s lived it. Taken from his newly-released Backward, “Themselves” lays out the warning like a guy who’s been broke before and doesn’t plan on going back. “I been there, you don’t want that,” he sings. “Crashing out with no brake pad/It turned me to a fucking savage.” The instrumental glides along, smooth enough to play at a cookout, while Ward lectures over the top of it. “Don’t stop making your bread just because you know I got you. That’s how people play themselves.” He asks the same question over and over, “How many times you gon’ fuck that bag up?”, like he’s waiting for an answer he knows isn’t coming. The song could scan as condescending if it weren’t so clearly coming from somewhere real. Ward isn’t posturing. He’s pleading. “We’re stronger when we lay our own foundations,” he offers, and that’s about as tender as it gets. Turn your passion into a hustle. — Murffey Zavier
Mýa, “ASAP”
Mýa has been famous longer than some of her current listeners have been alive. “It’s All About Me” dropped in 1998. Lady Marmalade won a Grammy in 2002. She spent the next two decades releasing independent albums that barely troubled the charts, touring steadily, and maintaining the kind of career that doesn’t require constant visibility to sustain itself. She’s not chasing hits anymore, and a lot of her peers can learn from this. She’s just working. Here, she takes the responsible role in a relationship that’s gone silent. “We gotta have this conversation,” she opens. “The only problem is communicating/If we don’t do this then we might not make it.” Teaming up with MyGuyMars, the music stays polished and mid-tempo, the kind of adult R&B that used to dominate radio and now mostly exists on streaming playlists for people over thirty. Mýa lays out the facts: “So far apart in the same room/Eyes don’t lie, I know you feel it too.” She admits her own mistakes without making a show of it. “I know I was wrong bringing up the past/But how did you expect for me to react?” The song builds toward a conclusion everyone can see coming but nobody wants to say out loud. “We can’t keep running from our issues.” Either they have the conversation or they don’t. — Jamila W.
Terrace Martin, “Once I Say” feat. Blxst
I’ve been putting this one on around 11pm, when the apartment’s dim and nobody’s coming over but nobody’s going to sleep either. Terrace Martin has spent years making jazz palatable to hip-hop heads, threading saxophone through Kendrick records, producing for YG and Snoop, running sessions at his Inglewood studio with whoever happens to be in town. “Once I Say” strips all that ambition down to something simpler. A slinky beat, a hook that barely exists, and Blxst floating over the top like he’s half-asleep.
The lyrics wouldn’t fill a napkin. “And it sound like it look/If she glance if she took/Can’t you tell I keep it player/But don’t play it by the book.” Blxst mumbles something about glancing at his watch, checking if she’s ready to go. “Once I step, you step/I lead the way, lead the way.” That’s about as direct as it gets. The track runs on mood alone, on the warmth of Martin’s production and the way Blxst’s voice curls around syllables without committing to anything. It’s the kind of song that works best when you’re not really listening, when you just need something to fill the room without demanding your attention. Sometimes that’s enough. — Asa McKenzie
Tom Misch, “Sisters with Me”
Most songs about siblings are corny as hell. The sentimental piano, lyrics that sound like greeting cards, some line about blood being thicker than water. Tom Misch doesn’t entirely escape the trap on “Sisters with Me,” but he gets closer than most. The London producer usually keeps things cool. Beat tapes, guitar instrumentals, collaborations with jazz musicians and rappers who match his laid-back frequency. This is him trying something softer.
“The youngest of three,” he sings early on, placing himself in the birth order. “We evolve, and we see/The love life can bring/Its uncertainty.” The words stay simple and occasionally clunky, which somehow makes them land harder. “Cut from the same threads/Pinks, greens, and reds/No falling behind/No running ahead.” He’s writing about his sisters, about being steady for each other, about the kind of bond that doesn’t require explanation. “When the storm passes by/The sky turns to blue/I look to both sides/It’s you, me, and you.” The arrangement hangs back gentle and unhurried, strings floating in, letting the words carry the weight. The kind of song you’d play at a wedding reception, and I don’t mean that as an insult. — Phil
R&B Albums Released This Week to Check Out
Jordan Ward: Backward
Terrace Martin: Passion
Soulive: Flowers
Rebel Rae: We Made Soul USA
Sepalot: closer
Angels of Libra & Nathan Johnston: Road to Mandalay
PJ: Why Do Feelings Matter Anyway (EP)
Zani: Reasons (EP)
Deric: Mood Swings & Melodies III (EP)
Other R&B Songs to Check Out
Sasha Keable: Tell Me What You Want
Kelly Rowland: Complicated (feat. Method Man)
EJ Jones & BigXthaPlug: Gas Station Love (Remix)
Bellah: Typical (feat. Destin Conrad)
August Charles: Father
Gareth Donkin: Out Here
Isaiah Kaleo: sweet tooth
sky: commitment
Ye Ali: Just a Kiss (feat. TheARTI$t)
Pablo Carns: R&B
Bobby V.: I’m the One
Joya Mooi: Lookalike
Lee Lewis: White Flag
Debbie: The Rain Isn’t Over
Tama Gucci: xexe
rum.gold: Walking Dead
Dionne Bromfield & Blue Lab Beats: Green Light
Brandy Haze: Need Your Love
Sam Pounds: Energy
Hil St. Soul: Nasalifya
Etta Bond, Raf Riley & D Double E: Attracted 2 U
Amir Obe: TINTED
Yuna: Believer
Allyn: Come (Aana)
cortex: Passport
Dylan Sinclair: Squeeze
Choker: Uneven
Nic Dean: Vacant
Pimmie: Bet
Lelo: Dice Roll
3Breezy: Date Night
Vedo: Fine Shyt (EB Remix) [feat. Eric Bellinger]
Sentury: Forever Acoustic Mix
Joshua Showtime Williams: Slow Jam
cinquemani: Don’t You Know
Mondayswithmax, Jeremih & DUSTIN DAB BOWIE: MY BODY