Stay in the Room as Long as You Can
New songs from kwn, Glenn Lewis, Tiffany Evans, Blxst, and Daley—none of them willing to play it safe. Slow jams, self-worth anthems, and reunion fantasies from singers who know what they came for.
Welcome to the Soulpolitan weekly feature, where we highlight the R&B singles worth your time. As people who spend an unreasonable amount of time pressing play on things nobody asked us to press play on, this is our way of passing along the best of what we’re hearing—and occasionally arguing about, so you don’t have to sort through every New Music Friday playlist yourself.
These are songs we keep reaching for—on the morning commute, in the kitchen, late at night when the phone is charging and nobody’s texting back This batch leans hard into R&B’s most tender corner: desire without shame, reunion without guarantee, and the kind of self-worth that refuses to negotiate. From an East London singer-songwriter-producer who self-produces her own longing to a Manchester vocalist painting entire moods in purple, here are five songs that had us reaching for the replay button all week.
kwn, “Touch Myself”
In recent years, many younger R&B vocalists have adopted a very specific style (which I hate): a muffled, half-whispered vocal that prioritizes texture over technique, hiding behind the production until you aren’t quite sure who the vocalist is. But East London’s Khyra Wilson, who writes, produces and records under the name kwn, turns that on its head. On “Touch Myself,” the producer-singer sits right at the front of the record, close enough that you can hear her take a breath between lines, and lets her voice do the sweating.
Backed by swishy percussion and slick synthesizers from producers FAXONLY and Zeek, kwn’s track is a slow-jam reminiscent of SWV that maintains a slow tempo but keeps the intensity building as it goes. kwn herself matches the pace perfectly. Lines like “I touch myself just thinking about you” can be heard as boastful or a confession, depending on who delivers it, but with a raspy, breathy delivery, it can come off as both, as if the singer is revealing something they didn’t plan to say. Things get a little looser and sweeter in the second verse (“I’m sexually frustrated/And I can demonstrate it if you like”) as if she is grinning through the lines as the drums close in on her. She has clearly written this line for herself, as the delivery is very personal (“I nominate myself tonight”), almost like it’s not that unusual to hear those words spoken outside of a song.
Last June, kwn released her debut EP, With All Due Respect, on RCA and featured a collaboration with Kehlani, “Worst Behaviour,” for which she earned a BET nomination, alongside a sold-out headline tour last summer. kwn’s sophomore EP, And All Pride Aside, will release on June 26, and if there is one thing her latest release shows, she certainly knows not to ask for permission to get the job done. The Walthamstow native, who grew up Nigerian and Irish, learned to play the piano from a young age and started making music on SoundCloud at 11 years old, has spent more than a year making music she has produced herself. On “Touch Myself,” she makes you feel like you’re not going to get the chance to wait any longer. — Jamila W.
Glenn Lewis, “G.Y.A.M.L. (My Love)”
It’s been 24 years since people were comparing Glenn Lewis to Stevie Wonder. Glen Ricketts, who released the album World Outside My Window in 2002, got the comparisons early, as he was a singing competition winner back in high school, and he didn’t have the “thug” or “preacher” vibe that was in demand for R&B singers back then. Then, like many artists whose sounds didn’t fit neatly into a category, he dropped off. He released the Moment of Truth album on an indie imprint in 2013, and a concept album with DJ Jazzy Jeff followed in 2017.
“G.Y.A.M.L. (My Love)” will be on the upcoming album Overture, and you can tell Lewis has been honing his craft in the background. “Giving You All My Love” originally was an instrumental released last year by Seige Monstracity. It featured drums, piano, and horns, and the instrumental itself created a groove that made you want to nod your head. It wasn’t trying to sound like a specific period. So, it’s very easy for Lewis to just slot in his voice like he’s been listening to this track for months.
“Crazy seeing ya
Was wondering how you been
You stayed on my mind
Swear it’s like fate brought us back again.”
It’s a classic romcom theme, seeing someone you once dated, and rekindling a flame, and Lewis sings it all with so much control that it doesn’t sound needy at all. He plays with phrasing so much that it makes you think he’s singing “questioning” for a few beats while you really only hear it once. His father was a part of the Canadian funk band, Crack of Dawn, so it’s easy to notice that the rhythm is driving the music, not the voice. The voice is just comping to the rhythm. “Zimbabwe to Kenya/Sun kissed ‘cause she African/You been stole my heart but you caught/Ain’t need to I’m giving in.” It’s a song about reconnecting with someone, with the smoothness and lack of urgency in Lewis’ voice helping sell the idea of being out of touch for the past decade-plus of years. — Phil
Tiffany, “Treat Me Like a Princess”
Somewhere in a box or on a hard drive is a clip of eleven-year-old Tiffany Evans competing on Star Search and receiving perfect scores from every judge. She was the only contestant in the show’s history to ever do that. Fast-forward three years and she had a Columbia Records deal and a Ciara feature on the smash “Promise Ring,” the track for which sounded out a summer of MySpace profile pages and Limited Too shopping bags. She was in two of Tyler Perry’s films. She worked with Timbaland, too. Eventually, the phone stopped ringing, as it would for many young Black women who grew out of whatever it was that was profitable.
The time gap that occurred between 2015’s All Me EP and now has been spent doing things that don’t make for press releases: writing, strengthening her vocal skills, and determining what it is that she really wants to say, without the involvement of a major label. “Treat Me Like a Princess” is Tiffany’s first release in almost a year. It’s the first track off of a new chapter called Tiffany, and its release reveals that entire period of resetting herself in all its entirety. Produced by Dwayne “Toruxd” McPherson, Michael “Raz” Melvin and Prince Happoldt, the track wraps a diamond-filled request in a soft, smooth vocal delivery. She sounds more loving than forceful on this track, as if she’s wondering whether it would be easier on her part to ask nicely than to demand.
“Diamonds on me dancing/I like when I’m your main attraction/I don’t really like when you miss the vision/If you can’t do nothing else, just treat me like a princess,” the lyrics are clever in their construction. She sets the tone by stating something she does enjoy, then negates something that’s not quite right; thus, when she gets to her demands, it’s not so much of an ultimatum as it is a correction. On the second verse she gets even more direct, like she’s leaning in closer to the microphone: “I can be subtle about what I need from you/But it’s so exciting when you’re doing things that I teach you to do.” The wisdom gained over the last two decades of industry experience seeps through that line; she was teaching people how to be to her at age fourteen. The song was written by her, and the VVS reference continues for the entirety of the track, seamlessly transitioning from jewelry to clarity to self-realization. By the bridge, you want to be ice-ing her up to your core. She’s earned that right. — Imani Raven
Blxst, “Just My Type”
You might say Blxst’s self-produced drums sit just past where you’d expect them. Not lazy or dragging, but a beat upbeat that your body instinctively leans forward to catch it. “Just My Type,” which is Blxst’s latest single and the first lead from his upcoming album Labor of Love (June 12), rides that pocket like a weapon. It begins with a guitar loop from Sam Wun so rich it feels like the warm glow of a space heater in a small one-bedroom apartment, and when Blxst comes in, it’s almost as if he’s starting mid-sentence, “You can’t take me nowhere/I don’t care nothin’ ‘bout no time and place, I want you here.” It feels like he is telling us something, like he’s speaking it as he goes. And that is a trick. One day, all we have left are the memories we made. On paper, it’s just Hallmark fluff, but here it is like a man who knows how to count down his life and chooses to count recklessly.
“How many risks did we take? (Too much)
How many rules did we break? (Too much).”
These are questions he answers himself before you can get a word in edgewise. Like he’s already having this conversation in his mind. — Randy
Daley, “Lavender”
Here he is. Daley has taken the best part of a decade and a great deal of labor to build up a global career on such vocally striking tracks that he risks sounding too smooth a song, the kind of glossy delivery that is easy to tune out. He’s performed alongside such luminaries as Pharrell Williams, Stevie Wonder, Robert Glasper and Jill Scott. His most recent single, a collaborative piece with UK producer Swindle titled “Lavender,” finally allows all that prowess to find a space worthy of its potential. “Is there any way/We could lose this crowd?/Make a getaway/Up to a distant cloud,” and you know where this song is heading: “Lavender” is about escapism. But it’s not about tucking yourself in bed and singing a soothing song; it’s about placing yourself in a highly controlled state of mind in order to escape to the heavens. Swindle’s sound, which sits somewhere between the realms of jazz, neo-soul and UK bass, isn’t something you want to get lost in, because you want to be able to keep track of yourself, given the track is so leisurely and relaxed. The walls are coming down and the ceiling is levitating and your home is increasing until it’s just you and one other individual. You can only imagine the presence of the other person speaking to you while you float in the clouds. “There are new colors that appear/When you’re here with me,” Daley raptures. — Nehemiah
R&B, Soul, or Blues Albums to Check Out
6LACK: Love Is the New Gangsta
Moses Sumney: Is God Is (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Thee Marloes: Di Hotel Malibu
Patrick Paige II: Love You, Mean It
CJ Monét: Confessions of a People Pleaser
Willie Clayton: Evolution
Bri Babineaux: Briana
Keenan TreVon: Buy Me Flowers
We the Band: 911!
REMI: Left On RED (EP)
Anaïs Cardot: Map of Her Shadow (EP)
SIPHO.: YEARN (EP)
Ooma: A Timeless Echo (EP)
Deliverie: From Deliverie with Love (EP)
Rebel Rae: Typewriter (EP)
BVNGS: Only Cause I’m Drunk Too (EP)
Justin Garner: songs you can feel (EP)
Yoko Gold: Gemini Moon (EP)
Suzanne Sheer: Voices (EP)
Konyikeh: Cincere (EP)
DAMOYEE: Not My Place (EP)
CARMIT: CARMIT (EP)
Kali Sade: Take XXI (EP)
Qui: Cold Summer (EP)
Other Songs to Check Out
Ro James: 5th Gear
Arno Sacco: Bridges
Adrian Younge: Feel the High Life
NappyHIGH: Angel (kp) [feat. Devin Morrison & Brad Bellard]
Jesse Gold, Jesse Barrera & Gabe Bondoc: Date Night
DVYN: In My Face
Charlotte Dowsson: Please
Olympia Vitalis: Money Tree
Vedo: Oooh (V-Mix)
JACOTÉNE: Tell Me (I Heard It from My Father)
Pimmie: Call Me When You Can (Live Sessions)
The Crank Crusaders (Raheem DeVaughn, YahZarah & Bootsy Vegas): Tambourine
Stefan Mahendra: Too Late
r.em.edy: leaving with my lipgloss on
Bobby V: Easy to Love
I Am Roze: With You
Lu’: MME
Orla Rae: M25
SemajB: Love Ain’t Fair
Jimmie Allen: Shaking In My Boots
THEHONESTGUY: WAHALA RIDDIM
Devon Culture: HOW DO YOU SLEEP
Johnny Gill: A Dance, A Kiss
Heartbreak Alumni: Can’t Help Myself
Felix Ames: I Don’t Wanna Die
TA Thomas: I Found You
2BYG: I Want You
Ne-Yo: Ms. Tundra
Sean Leon & God’s ALGORITHM: MET SOMEONE ELSE
Roses Gabor: RAINBOWS IN SPRINGTIME
Jason Dhakal: Play
Gayathri Krishnan: Self Esteem
Lost Girl: Wild
Stevan: Wishing That We Met
Samba Jean-Baptiste & Rockie Rode: January Sweetheart
Courtnie, Mad Keys & Phoelix: Commas
Eric Penn: Hit & Run
Zeke Bleu: Under Your Spell
Avara: what did you think love would be
Maleigh Zan: Bad Bunny
KAYAM: Guilty Pleasure
pacificjoshua.: luv u right
Majid Jordan: Cold