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I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Miguel’s ADC series, and there’s no doubt that those who have given any or both of the previous instalments a try will hold Miguel in much higher regard as a result. Sadly, this is the final volume of the series but here’s to hoping that means there’s a full-length project on the way.
The three track EP opens with Party Life, a lively effort that stays true to its title, boasting a nice tempo alongside a scratchy bass and some catchy vocal for a good upbeat track that’ll make many playlists better. Ooh Aah! slows things down with an edgy guitar riff helping to create a punchy backdrop, whilst the slow pace of it all adds an intensity to the diverse vocal work, whilst Candles In The Sun lands takes another step away from the positivity of the opening track, as a somewhat dark and menacing production with often moody lyricism from Miguel. Another solid three-pack from Miguel: stream it here, or download it below.
Miguel-Art Dealer Chic Vol. 3
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After a few weeks away, R&B Fridays is back and swollen with star quality for this week’s edition. Of course, in keeping with tradition, it’s also released on a Sunday. Nice to be back into routine eh?
Not too much to catch up on in terms of related audio posts, but there are a few videos that’ll interest the R&BF crowd, including Rita Ora’s debut visual, Preeya Kalidas’ latest effort, and a couple of new clips from Drake’s Take Care. Head on below to compliment that visual feast with some audio refreshment.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 143
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The first of 3 EP’s Miguel is set to release this year (alongside talk of his sophomore LP), he hits R&B fans with 3 excellent tracks to get the Art Dealer Chic series off to a flying start.
Adore blends a slow jam sensibility with a soulful energy, as the laidback, relatively slow-paced production is blended with powerful and diverse vocal work from Miguel. It’s an effective mix that showcases Mig’s crossover abilities well. That I Do (FTRMX) is a livelier offering, relying more on the cacophony of sounds in the production to drive the track on rather than Miguel’s vocal work, though the performance from him is typically consistent throughout. Gravity has a strong hip-hop sensibility in the beat, with a real head-nodding combination of pounding percussion and deep melodies, and the vocals are adjusted appropriately as he dials it back a little on the emotion to ride the natural bounce of the track. A good triumverate of tracks, and I’d recommend them to any R&B head. Free download available below, stream available here.
Miguel-Art Dealer Chic Vol. 1
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Whilst the hip-hop world has been extremely busy this week, it’s been a slower week in the R&B world. Hence, there’s only the one post to catch up on from the week gone by, with a smooth, very enjoyable effort from one of the better entities to emerge from Odd Future, The Internet, though I expect many R&BF fans will also be interested in the latest single from Drake’s upcoming album.
Get your fingers at the ready, and get to clicking below for this week’s gooey treats.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 122
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Brand new single from Wale’s upcoming sophomore album, Ambition, set to be released on 1st November (or 11.1.11., as he spams daily on Twitter!).
A very solid effort too, and one that should be extremely popular with the mainstream crowd. The production is easygoing, with mellow, mesmeric synth work alongside a percussion that winds slowly throughout the track, and sprinklings of more electronic elements thrown in for a little diversity. Miguel does an excellent job with the hook, crooning his way to a catchy, passionate effort that contrasts with the laidback production to really project his voice, whilst Wale’s verses are enjoyable enough as he experiments with a range of flows and keeps the subject matter accessible and mainstream friendly. A decent all-rounder.
Wale-Lotus Flower Bomb ft. Miguel
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On we roll with the institution of institutions, and it’s probably fair to say that the highlight of this week’s R&B has already been posted: having finally got around to listening to The Weeknd’s debut project I was incredibly impressed by it, and would wholeheartedly recommend you R&B Friday fans checked it out.
In addition to that, the past week saw visuals for the latest T-Pain and Chris Brown collab, Frank Ocean dropped off some enjoyable visuals for one of his lesser-known tracks, and finally a big collaboration between Lloyd, Trey Songz and Young Jeezy.
Click below to grab what else we’ve got in store this week.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 102
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Centenaries are a rare thing in many walks of life, so I speak for both past and present, writing and non-writing members of the OTU team when I thank you sincerely for your dedication to our online presence. Whilst various weekly serials have come and gone, this has stood strong for 100 weeks, so we genuinely thank you for your support here in R&B Fridays. Having been introduced in our very first week, this also marks our 100th week online, so thanks again for all of your support in getting us this far.
As it’s a milestone episode, it felt like the right decision to award Frank Ocean the honour of representing this occasion. I can hear your outrage: ‘why not a staple of the episodes, like Lloyd or Usher?’. Well, we like to look forward, and frankly (sorry) I feel he’s really going to dominate this series for the next 100 episodes, and deservedly so.
Click below for your regular weekly instalment: two days late, in keeping with tradition! I’ve also got a little extra something to celebrate the occasion coming shortly after this…
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 100
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I’ve turned up late to the party once again, so I’m not going to mess you around with a long intro here. That’s helped by only having one relevant and noteworthy post from the week gone by, that being Erin Christine’s latest single.
Click below to fill your empty stomachs with R&B/pop/soul nourishment.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 98
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Genuinely tried to get this out yesterday, but once again we suffered from a lack of material. I’ve managed to half fix that problem, though this is still a shorter episode than you’re probably used to.
However, there’s been lots of pop/R&B posted in the last week that may help fill that void: new Bruno Mars visuals, Willow Smith’s latest single, the announcement of an awesome 90s hip-hop and R&B night in Camden, a strong introduction to UK upcomer CleoSol, J.Lo and Pitbull’s latest collab, and finally some new Timbaland and Brandy.
Click below for the 90th instalment of the longest running weekly episodic ever.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 90
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Every so often, a track pops up on here that puts together everything I enjoy from R&B into one neat, slick package. This would be one of those rare occasions, making this track essential listening.
Atmospheric, ethereal synth work is weaved into pulsating, midtempo drum work to give this track one of the best productions I’ve heard from the R&B game in quite some time. Miguel is one of my favourite vocalists in the R&B/soul scene, and comes through with a soaring, captivating and skilled vocal performance that makes full use of the production’s peaks and troughs: the hook in particular is very memorable, giving this one the potential to appeal to just about anyone.
The icing on the cake is a couple of very assured contributions from the ever-passionate Gilbere Forte, coming through on the relationship/love style that I’ve not heard him try out yet and passing with flying colours, adding a wholesome and complete feel to the song. Fantastic track all-round.
Miguel-Hard Way Remix ft. Gilbere Forte
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Is it me, or is it taking pretty long to get to episode 100?! I feel like we’ve been in the 80s forever!
Either way, the R&B/pop keeps coming thick and fast with another well-proportioned episode for you this week. Four R&B-related OTU items for you from the week gone by: the latest video from the Dirty Money trio, the first mixtape offering from Dirty Money’s Dawn Richard, visuals for Sean Garrett and J. Cole’s collaboration, and finally the official remix of Chipmunk and Chris Brown’s collab, also featuring J. Cole.
Click on for music and a whole pile of related text.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 87
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Once again, it’s not quite a Friday. However, with the busy Christmas/New Year period over, hopefully these will be back on regular schedule from next week!
The past week has seen some pretty interesting R&B/pop pieces: Duck Sauce came through with a great remix of Chromeo and Elly Jackson’s single, the well-respected Jackie Boyz dropped off a mixtape, Marsha Ambrosius delivered an incredibly thoughtful video, Eminem remixed Dirty Money’s Hello, Good Morning, and we were also treated to two more Dirty Money remixes. Click below for this week’s instalment.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 82
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A more digestable episode this week, which makes a nice change for us all having had a few extended instalments in recent weeks.
Outside of this episode, it’s been a fairly quiet week for R&B, with just the three notables: a video for Rihanna and Drake’s collaboration, new music from UK upcomer Talay Riley, and the latest drop from Trey Songz’s upcoming mixtape.
Click below for the 75th instalment of R&B’s favourite weekly episodical.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 75
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Over the last 70 episodes, we’ve delivered music from your favourite acts, introduced you to some new and exiciting ones, and of course given a new lease of life to otherwise forgotten artists. To celebrate that, I’ve ensured this week’s episode covers all of that ground nicely, to keep everyone satisfied.
Not much to recap on this week, besides two big video premieres from Rihanna and Lloyd. Click on to grab a chunky, 20+ track episode that’ll keep you going for a while.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 70
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So Raekwon adds a verse to Miguel’s awesome track, then Rick Ross comes out with his own remix for it as well as doing a remix of Jazmine Sullivan’s Holding You Down. Raekwon has now come out with his version of Jazmine’s track. I think this has been a wasted opportunity, they could have clubbed together and did the remixes together rather than them both just having a short opening verse for each track. Anyway no more remixes of these tracks please, I’m done with them.
Miguel – All I Want Is You (remix) ft. Rick Ross
Jazmine Sullivan – Holding You Down (remix) ft. Rick Ross
Jazmine Sullivan – Holding You Down (remix) ft. Raekwon
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Fresh from branching out of his own lane and collaborating with Justin Bieber, Raekwon once again steps out of his comfort zone and lays a verse to Miguel & J. Cole’s excellent All I Want Is You track. Given the nature of this beat I shouldn’t be surprised to hear Rae spit on it, it’s definitely got that Wu vibe, Ghostface Killah would body this song for sure!
Miguel – All I Want Is You ft. Raekwon & J. Cole (remix)
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I’ve been absolutely itching for this video to drop ever since the song was released. There were so many possible directions for it to go, and I’m glad they’ve picked a nice blend of them all.
The video combines a solemn urban cityscape with some futuristic elements, as well as some stripped-down street visuals for Cole’s verses to create an interesting divisive element between the singing and rapping, which probably reflects the style/background of both artists as well as adding some diversity.
Really, really enjoying this video and the audio is fantastic of course. Great to see good music like this blowing up, and also to get some much-needed camera time for them both.
Audio is available here.
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Good amount of stuff in here for your enjoyment, without swarming you with too many tracks. As ever, there’s a lot of variety with some upcomers, newcomers and established artists all contributing this week.
Couple of R&B posts this week you may have missed: the final version of Johnta Austin’s Close Your Eyes, and the official video for The-Dream’s Make Up Bag. After those treats, click on for some more.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 51
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Sorry for the delay guys, as you know we were hacked on Friday night so I couldn’t get this out.
A nice even 20 tracks of new stuff for you this week, and lots of variety in there too in terms of styles and artists. Probably leaning more towards well-known artists this week, although there are still a couple of newbies for you to start getting into.
The quality is really high in this one, so be sure to give most/all of it a go. I’ve kindly weeded out most of the rubbish stuff, irrespective of artist calibre: I’m feeling ruthless! (Grr, roar etc)
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays (on a Saturday): Episode 45
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FINALLY, we have a regular episode. After the triple digits of last week, we’re back down to normal levels. I’ve made an effort to throw in more new artists this week as the last few have been really mainstream, so there are some lesser known gems in this one for you to check out.
Obviously plenty of established names in there too though, so be sure to click on for a digestable instalment of R&B goodness.
→ Continue Reading R&B Fridays: Episode 43
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