Friends: "The Way"

The artwork screams Bitch or Lita Ford, but everything else - from the late night guitar to the sultry vocals - screams of a Prince protege circa 1985. It's been a minute since we heard from Friends, and "The Way" is miles from where we last left them, but apparently this is a pace car single for a sophomore album that's so far from being completed that all we know is it should be out sometime this year.

Para One (feat. Irfane, Teki Latex & Cam'ron): "Every Little Thing" [Girl Unit Remix]

No idea how Cam'ron showed up on this thing. The best that can be said is that he doesn't really detract from the tune, but "Every Little Thing" isn't about the verses anyway. If this song were aimed at Top 40 radio it would ruin that stop-you-in-your-tracks chorus with a generic EDM backbeat. I'm really fucking bitter about pop.

Shlohmo + Jeremih: "Bo Peep (Do U Right)"

I have no idea what's going on with that artwork but this track right here is how shit is done. I'm not too big a fan of Jeremih on his own, and frankly it sounds like he's kinda trying to jump on the cloud R&B trend on "Bo Peep", but Shlohmo can do no wrong. I mean, he probably can but this isn't gonna be the song to end his streak.

Banks: "Fall Over"

Proving once again that Brooklyn is on the way out and LA is on the way... actually, pretty much already here, Banks follows up last month's "Before I Even Met You" with another radio-friendly club take on modernist Blue Eyed Soul. Girly girl is comfortable enough to not only shoot her newest video like it was a Victoria's Secret audition, but like Mike Jones before her she's even got her home phone number posted to her Facebook profile.

Morri$: "Things Behind Glass"

Cloud R&B is all the rage right now, but this is one of the first choons I've heard that actually seems to have an honest-to-goodness old school soul jam at its gauzy heart, even though vocals are nowhere to be found. The title "Things Behind Glass" could be construed as pornographic in the wrong hands, but the bittersweet distance behind the production points to a more appropriate theme of unattainable objects.

In the spirit of gratis jams that is part of the whole "rebuilding fan support for the music industry" thing, you can snag the fuck out of the Young Love Heartbreak EP - a split with the hilariously named Sweater Beats - over at Morri$' Soundcloud.

Prince: "Breakfast Can Wait"

Prince is best when he's at his most earthy; he often flounders when he gets too heady or esoteric, which has described a pretty good chunk of his material since he started lobbying to get off Warner Brothers in the early 90s. He signed another major label deal for the release of 2004's Musicology, one that apparently gives him the freedom to continue recording outside the milieu of corporate overview... his last two releases were a free giveaway to subscribers of the UK's Daily Mail and a 3-disc set available exclusively through Target on his own NPG label.

Othello Woolf: "Keep On"

Last round and then we're off until the first of the year. My NY resolution for 2013 is going to be getting back into the habit of posting daily, something I already needed to get back into the swing of, so it's kind of like a resolution freebie. Let's get this over with...

Othello Woolf sounds like the name of a really studied, possibly even stuffy singer-songwriter type with too many dusted off sonnets rattling around in his head. Nope, straight up cloud soul for that ass. Grab a free album + EP over at homeboy's website. Unfortunately the freebies do not feature "Keep On"... look for that track on a new album early next year.

How to Dress Well: "& It Was U"

The congregation in this video looks like an overdressed, underperforming aerobics class. Necessary to make sure no one missed the obvious gospel inspiration in the song itself, I suppose.

Much like The Weeknd, How to Dress Well is another one man experimental R&B producer masquerading under a group moniker. His sophomore "slump" doubled as his breakthrough album, with Total Loss being anything but a salvage job. That was dumb; I apologize.

Octover: "Satisfy"

Still mystifying to me that garbage like Gaga and Bieber are considered the state of the art in pop, while the likes of Octover, Van She and Icona Pop are routinely ignored for recording far superior takes on similar styles of dance pop. Just as well, I suppose. If David Guetta got his hands on a song like "Satisfy" he'd no doubt want to ruin the slinky, booty call vibe with a bunch of unnecessary wub wub's, and why isn't there a 2 Chainz verse halfway through the song? I want him dead just thinking about it.

KILLER COVERS || Jessie Ware: "If You Love Me"

I make no secret of the fact that I've never been the world's biggest consumer of 90's R&B. Post-New Jack Swing I think there was an unwelcome (to me, anyway) shift toward the beat rather than the soul in the music, and as far as I was concerned we already had hip for that shit.

Gary Clark Jr.: "Numb" / "Ain't Messin' Round"

If "Numb" happens to be your first taste of Gary Clark Jr. you might be inclined to write the lad off as a late-to-the-party Black Keys knock off. Big mistake. "Ain't Messin' Round" - actually the first single off Clark's new album, Blak and Blu - shows the guitar slinger people have referred to as the "next Jimi Hendrix" in more of a modern soul vein, sort of a classy cross between 90's Lenny Kravitz and fellow Austinite Black Joe Lewis.

"Numb":

"Ain't Messin' Round":

AlunaGeorge: "Your Drums, Your Love"

The Weeknd doesn't have a monopoly on syrupy, left-field R&B. The duo of Aluna Francis and George Reid. In addition to making a splash with their You Know You Like It EP earlier this year (and the blanket Pitchfork coverage which attended it), they've also remixed the likes of Lana del Rey and Friends, not to mention being remixed themselves by Friendly Fires and Bondax. "Your Drums, Your Love" is their most impressive work to date, the electro vox on the chorus being the kind of thing that Kanye drools over.
AlunaGeorge on Nowness.com.

El Perro Del Mar: "Walk On By"

Glad to see that, after a quarter century, that Sade influence is finally starting to stick. There's a half buried 90's breakbeat low down in the mix, but otherwise "Walk On By" (not the Isaac Hayes song) could have been lifted straight off of that Stronger Than Pride LP.

El Perro Del Mar is the pseudonym of Swede Sarah Assbring, which itself just has to be a pseudonym, doesn't it?

Flying Lotus: "See Thru To U" [feat. Erykah Badu]

Guess Flying Lotus knew better than to risk lensing a video for his new collabo with Erykah Badu... and I know better than to go any further with that thought.

Twigs: "Ache"

If we're going to recognize the legitimacy of "cloud rap" then surely in the brief time of its ascent it has already been eclipsed by "cloud soul", an ethereal dream pop version of R&B kickstarted a year or so ago by The Weeknd and since paraded through a procession of compatible sub-genres: witch house, ambient, noise pop, etc. The latest to fly the flag is Twigs, an R&B chanteuse of unknown origin who is releasing her second single without bothering to establish a public identity to underline her first.

KILLER COVERS || Bettye LaVette: "I'm Not the One"

These lyric videos are getting visually sophisticated enough that you wonder why they don't just go ahead and produce some legit visuals. Anyway...

Bettye LaVette is looking to further establish herself as a key interpreter of modern music with an album of covers sometime later in the fall. With announced renditions by the likes of Neil Young, K.D. Lang and Bob Dylan it's good to see her stretching beyond a predictable old school R&B palette. That said, a Black Keys cover is something you'd expect her to kill effortlessly, and that she does. That she does.

Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland: "The Narcissist"

You may know Hype Williams as the guy who directed all those rap videos (and the movie Belly), but you may not have been aware that there is a strange musical duo who have appropriated the name and are now releasing a new record under their individual aliases (confused yet?), Dean Blunt and Inga Copeland. I'm gonna go ahead and dub "The Narcissist" Record of the Year at the 2013 Grammy Awards and be incorrect as early as possible. You can judge for yourself by streaming the entire album (Black Is Beautiful) at Resident Advisor. Smoke up, bitches.
(via Gorilla vs Bear):

Jai Paul: "Jasmine"

The first 30 seconds of this sound like a satanic Tangerine Dream soundtrack from the 80s. Then Jai Paul's voice comes in like a glitchy version of Prince's uploaded consciousness and things just get less predictable from there. Paul is a producer's producer, throwing in tons of effects and audio easter eggs where other artists would have kept it minimalist and gone for the pop/R&B crossover crowd. The lesson of "Jasmine" is: fuck the crossover crowd.

Paris Jones: "Ashley Brown" [feat. J. Valle]

Paris Jones has been a busy hombre lately. His website boasts no fewer than three full length, free downloads, and his Soundcloud profile corrals together a ton of non-overlapping loose ends as well. Paris is one of the newer school of R&B singers who are largely rejecting post-new jack, hip hop influenced beats for traditional soulful vamping over top wispy, often hazy electronic melodies. None of his existing tracks exemplify this better than "Ashley Brown", with a filtered synth hook straight out of a 1983 Billy Ocean hit. Speaking of which, Frank Ocean is probably the closest comparison here, and that's fine company to be in.

Frank Ocean: "Whip Appeal"

Not a Babyface cover, although the reference is probably not accidental... Frank Ocean has obviously learned a trick or two from 'face's honeyed falsetto. "Whip Appeal" was supposed to be on the deluxe edition of Ocean's Nostalgia, Ultra, which was self-released in February 2011, but apparently Ocean felt like too much time had passed, too many people already had this critically acclaimed, wildly popular album in their hands to attempt a mainstream re-release on a major label. Which is perfectly sensible: in the fickle world of pop music, you're only as big as your last hit, and if Ocean tries to pimp his old shit over on an audience that already owns most of this material, the shitty sales which would likely result could have catastrophic consequences to Ocean's commercial momentum. Best to just get back in the studio, eyes ahead.