“This falls into a full-bodied narrative arc so effortlessly. R&B neorealism.” -RYM user Rigondonuts

As suggested by the quote above, Lyfe 268-192 is as much a story as it is an album. Step aside, Kendrick! Lyfe gives the artist’s story in a brilliant, flowing song cycle of a debut. Having been incarcerated at a young age, the numbers in the album’s title refer to his prison number. But Lyfe is much more than a story of prison, it’s a story of love.

As Lyfe opens up to “Must Be Nice”, an ode to a loving partner, one of the first things you may notice is that Lyfe Jennings has a fantastic voice. I first discovered him on the posthumous Shawty Lo song “My Love”, which with its bittersweet sort of electronic harpsichord and the context of Shawty Lo’s untimely passing gives Lyfe a truly heartfelt chorus. He wrings emotion out of his notes in a smoky style similar to that of the classic R&B artists of the 60s. Having written and produced every song himself (with only two songs co-written by others), Lyfe stands out among other R&B albums of the early 2000s with a focused, cohesive vision and style.

Good R&B makes you want to sing. There are certain songs that revolve in your head like a special memory, encouraging off-the-cuff vamping whether you’re in the shower or not. “I Can’t” is one of those songs for me, and it wasn’t even a single from Lyfe. This fantastic love ballad is sandwiched between two excellent tracks about fairly specific relationship difficulties. “She Got Kids” weighs the pros and cons of dating a single mother with an empathetic view, while “Hypothetically” finds the narrative’s couple discussing difficult issues together.

The album’s middle section finds Lyfe single and in legal and financial trouble. The down-to-earth musings of “Stick Up Kid” (“You ever seen a n**** diggin’ in the ashtray? / I’m doin’ bad, y’all”) lead to “Cry”, which features one of my favorite Lyfe quotes: “Crying is like taking your soul to a laundromat.”

I would say the back half of this album is not quite at the level of the first, with its overly-rambling “Made Up My Mind”, but that would be doing a disservice to the amazing closer “Let’s Do This Right”. I love this song. A tribute to people in prison, Lyfe actually names his fellow inmates, effectively immortalizing them in his music. “Lyfe,” he muses in conclusion, “the soundtrack… to your life.”

Listen to Lyfe 268-192 here.

When you talk about 90s R&B, you might mention Mariah Carey, TLC, Boyz II Men, or Usher. What you might not know is the man behind much of that music. Enter Babyface.

The guy churned out hits: “End of the Road”, “Breathe Again”, “Roni”, “Not Gon’ Cry” are just a few. As half of LaFace, he created a label that turned into an empire, releasing the first 5 OutKast albums among other records. But I didn’t really know about Babyface’s solo music until 2017, when Frank Ocean played “Whip Appeal” on his Blonded Radio show. This amazing track led me to Tender Lover, a major revelation.

Face’s second solo album, Tender Lover is his magnum opus as a solo artist. In the same way that, 20 years later, The-Dream would create fantastic solo albums that failed to reach the commercial success of the artists he wrote and produced for (Beyoncé, Rihanna etc.), Tender Lover exists as an under-appreciated R&B gem.

The first side is good, but the second half is a knockout. The aforementioned “Whip Appeal” builds to an addictive crescendo. “Soon as I Get Home” is my favorite track. The lyrics are ridiculous and the 80s vibe is thick, it just sounds so damn good (Bobby V. did a nice version of it as well). Face has this way of making the happiest pop melodies, every instrument adds up to this maximalist, major key bliss. And he does the classic R&B trademark of singing the shit out of the background vocals in the final choruses of his songs.

I’ll never not champion Babyface. During last year’s Verzuz phenomenon, he graciously countered (the brilliant) Teddy Riley’s overblown showiness with a restrained display of talent. Hearing him talk about making music with Whitney Houston and Micheal Jackson is, to the pop fan, like listening in on a part of history. He speaks modestly and lovingly (check out his interview on Questlove Supreme if you want a great long-form podcast). And although he’s slowed down, he’s still making music: he was heavily involved in the making of Ariana Grande’s debut Yours Truly and he continues to work with his longtime musical partner Toni Braxton.

I recently purchased Tender Lover on cassette for the cheap. Unfortunately, the sound is all wobbly and wonky, it sounds like a fucked-up Screw tape. The streaming version has some cool bonus tracks, though. Besides the pretty video version of “Whip Appeal”, there is the Dub version of the title track (complete with a Bobby Brown rap) and a 7-minute “My Kinda Girl” remix.

Listen to Tender Lover here.

Copenhagen’s Erika de Casier just announced her next song “Drama” with an eye-popping Instagram post, so to celebrate I decided to revisit her debut album Essentials, which blew my mind upon first listen nearly two years ago and sounds amazing today, too. Now signed to one of my favorite labels, 4AD, I can’t wait to here what she has in store for her follow-up. Below is a slightly edited version of my Essentials review, which I wrote in 2019:

I love Aaliyah, Destiny’s Child, Craig David, Usher, Janet Jackson, Toni Braxton, and so on.

Erika de Casier wears her influences on her sleeve, as Essentials makes quite clear. But this isn’t some trendy gimmick. As the above quote (from an interview with i-D) demonstrates, the 90’s nostalgia comes from the heart. And with the help of mysterious Danish production team El Trick (aka Central) and DJ Sports*, de Casier’s debut is as much an enjoyable blast of nostalgia as it is a refreshingly new pop album.

The hits come early and just keep on hitting. After the lush pull of “The Flow”, the g-funk bounce of “Do My Thing” delivers her M.O. in its earworm chorus (bonus points for the brilliant no-budget video). It’s hard to pick stand-outs from the rest of the bunch because the sound is so fully-formed and consistent, but its worth mentioning the three-song arc of “What U Wanna Do?”, “Rainy”, and “Space”, tracks which in their moodiness work as effective contrasts to the sunshine of the album’s first half.

Erika de Casier’s vocal presence is warm and light, allowing her to float perfectly in the mix of the airy production. Lyrically, this is pretty standard pop fare that could have been written for most any Destiny’s Child song 20 years ago, but there is a repeated theme of de Casier urging her lover/listener to put their phone down and enjoy life (“Good Time”, “Intimate”), which I can totally get behind. Multiple listens reveal a handful of funny quirks and adlibs which are hard not to love. There are no features and other than “Photo of You”, which I think samples “Summer Madness”, there are no discernible samples.

I did a double-take on first listen here and it’s fair that you might too. But as she says on “Story of My Life”, Not tryna hide nothin’ / yeah I’m just comin’ real wit it. A superb debut that holds up well.

Listen to Essentials on Spotify.

*For more on these two, check out this p4k sampler and their distribution website.