13. Twenty88 (Jhene Aiko & Big Sean) – Twenty88
Twenty88, the duet album by Jhene Aiko and Big Sean, chronicles a passionate, but stormy relationship, with the visuals set in futuristic times. The music is smooth, but groovy and easily catchy with straight-talking storytelling. It’s really a one-of-a-kind album, a testament to the duo’s creativity, delivering a (dysfunctional) love story in a way we’ve never seen before, accompanied by great music and outstanding visuals. The album delivers several bangers, but radio never seemed to catch up. Definitely worth a listen.
Start With: On The Way
12. K. Michelle – More Issues Than Vogue
K. Michelle gave fans and R&B lovers a Good Friday present in March, releasing her much-anticipated album, More Issues Than Vogue. The album features the powerful vocals and energetic raw emotion we’ve come to expect from K. Michelle, but with an even bigger sound and some more experimental production. K even raps in the opening track, ‘Mindful’, a jarring warning to her haters, on the most infectious funky beat.
More Issues Than Vogue is a great album by an artist that constantly strives to push her boundaries and take her art to the next level. On More Issues Than Vogue, K. Michelle goes for a ‘bigger’ radio-anthem sound with songs like the Jason Derulo collab, ‘Make The Bed’. While she saw success, getting to #2 on the Billboard charts, there’s still a sense in which the mainstream recognition eludes Michelle. K. has a dedicated fanbase that turned up for her, but the word still isn’t quite out on what a brilliant album MITV is.
Start With: Time
11. Ro James – Eldorado
Ro James has gotten Maxwell, D’Angelo, Marvin Gaye and even Prince comparisons. While we think such comparisons often do emerging artists a dis-service, the breadth of these comparisons gives a sense of James’ immense versatility and talent. On his debut album, Eldorado, Ro James simultaneously proves his vocal, song-writing and heart-stealing bad-boy chops.
‘Eldorado’ is immensely versatile, really taking you on a ride through both the range and eras of Soul music. Starting on a mellow, but groovy note with ‘The Ride’, the album progresses through to the steamy, not-so-subtle ‘Permission’, the single that made it’s way up the single charts and is currently streamed 15.5m times on Spotify alone. Guided by smooth transitions between James’ baritone and falsetto, ‘Permission’ is a throwback to old Soul (think Marvin Gaye or Luther Vandross), that avoids coming off as gimmicky. The album eventually picks up the tempo on songs like Already Knew That and the heavenly-synthy Gas. It ends on a high note with the title track, a lush guitar-riffing record.
Start With: Permission
10. DVSN – Sept 5th
The uber-mysterious OVO-signed alternative R&B duo DVSN dropped their debut album, Sept 5th, midnight Saturday March 26th. The release came a week ahead of schedule and it was like Christmas come early for those lucky enough to be familiar with DVSN’s singles Hallucinations, With Me, Too Deep and The Line. The duo – composed of singer Daniel Daley and producer Nineteen85 (responsible for Drake’s Hotline Bling) – debuted their collection of songs that are a unique blend of 90s male group R&B with that dark, almost psychedelic alt R&B feel. Sept 5th is a must hear for 90s babies looking for the sound they were raised on with the subtle brilliance of the best of contemporary production.
Start With: Hallucinations
9. Frank Ocean – Blonde / Endless
On Friday 19 August, the (music) world was spinning after the surprise release of Endless by Frank Ocean, but then it was soon largely forgotten once, a day after its release, Blonde was released. Blonde has been met with much critical acclaim, but hasn’t quite felt the love from the gods of airplay at radio stations.
But if you haven’t already, you should be listening to both of these albums as they represent some of the best minimalist ‘alternative’ R&B the year had to offer. That goes for both albums, except Endless is more unrefined, less perfect, with even barer instrumentals, sparser woozy lyrics and undefined transitions between the songs. You almost float through the album. With defined tracklists and transitions, Blonde is the more traditional album. Blonde is gospel-infused, with organ arrangements featuring throughout (as on Godspeed and Solo). Still, it maintains that melancholy, sparse downbeat feel mastered by Ocean and one of his famed collaborators, James Blake.
The album duo is certainly one of the year’s must hears. Both Endless and Blonde feature powerful moments that showcase what we already know about Frank Ocean – he’s brilliant. His penmanship is virtually unmatched and the creativity he’s displayed with the release strategies, associated visuals and music on both albums is why he’s one of the greatest of our generation.
Start With: Pink + White
8. Kaytranada – 99.9%
Kaytranada is a producer from Montreal (the Canadians really have the music game on lock right now) known for creating electronic, house beats. But on 99.9%, his debut album released 6 May 2016, he showed off his musical range. The album has 15 songs and defies genre classification, with some songs in the House / EDM space, some reppin hip hop hard, some with R&B stylings and even throwback ’70s tinges. It’s a fantastically easy and fun listen! And with Kaytranada’s stellarly crisp production, coveted features (including Craig David, Vic Mensa, Aluna George, Anderson. Paak and Syd, etc.) and the whistle stop tour round musical genres, 99.9% is an essential listen.
Start With: Got it Good
