R&b bops of the week, with a late-night soul record about the kind of pull between two people that nobody has a clean word for.
R. Nelson – Gravity
R. Nelson serves up a gorgeous piece of contemporary soul: atmospheric, emotionally precise, and the kind of track that sounds better the third time than the first.
“Gravity” takes the idea of invisible pull between people and turns it into a production choice: the track breathes and kind of evolves slowly. R. Nelson builds his sound around the emotional registers that sit between confidence and self-doubt, between closeness and distance, and “Gravity” is the clearest expression of that instinct yet. This one’s as smooth as butter and has an incredible groove; but best of all the song on top of the groove is fantastic. Excitingly, it’s already picked up international playlist support and media coverage. We’re not really surprised, cos it’s a vibe.
R. Nelson operates out of Washington, DC under his own Ashy Knuckle Productions imprint, and has been steadily building a catalogue that includes “Why Are You So Beautiful” and “Do I Deserve Love” alongside this latest single. His reference points are classic soul traditions filtered through contemporary production sensibility, and we just love where it ends up. A great single, can’t wait for the next one.
Montana Joanna – Same Stars
Montana Joanna’s “Same Stars” is a gorgeous modern retro soul debut: horns, funky rhythm, a self-taught bassist who went looking for songs and found some brilliant ones quickly
“Same Stars” is built on live instrumentation and a playful, jazzy vocal that sits squarely in the classic soul tradition without ever feeling backwards looking. This has a serious groove, with the horns and funky rhythm section giving it the ‘band in a room ‘ warmth. And not just that, the craft in this song, and melodic confidence, suggests an artist who has been listening closely to this music for a long time before deciding to make her own version of it. It is a strong, fully formed debut single that establishes a clear direction from the first bar.
Montana Joanna is a Santa Fe-based singer, songwriter and bassist who taught herself bass guitar in 2020 and began writing original songs on the instrument almost immediately. She performs across multiple bands and genres, including indie rock band Luminatrix, whose album Hide and Seek charted on college radio in 2024. Her solo work as a modern retro soul artist centres on live instruments and a wonderfully clean, natural vocal tone that owes as much to her jazz background as to the soul records she draws from. It’s incredibly exciting debut and we’re eager to see where Montana goes next.
Deja Renee – Falling (Lose My Mind)
Deja Renee’s “Falling (Lose My Mind)” is an excellent contemporary R&B single: precise, emotionally raw, and with stunning melodic lines
“Falling (Lose My Mind)” is the new single from Deja Renee, and it’s a special one. Co-written with Sade Frame and A1 Krashn on topline and Destiny Petrel on lyrics, it’s all put together in a pretty exciting package. The vocal is brilliant; an intimate verse before grooving into a stunner of a chorus. The production is exceptional, and I love it’s wavy vibes. But it’s the ending is the track’s best moment: no production to hide behind, just the voice and the subject. Stunning stuff.
Deja Renee is from San Diego and holds an Associate of Arts in Music Performance from MiraCosta College, with a background in classical voice and jazz that gives her technical range unusual for the commercial R&B space. She began releasing original music in 2021, and her 2023 single “Jealous” reached number 36 on the UK iTunes Charts. Her 2025 single “Take Me Home Tonight” was her most well-received release before this one. But we’re falling in love with this one, and it’s definitely one of our favourite singles this month.
Nia Marie – Selfish
Nia Marie’s “Selfish” is a stunning R&B debut single: written in a few hours from the raw end of a breakup, produced with style and it hits right in the heart
“Selfish” is a the debut single from Nia Marie. It’s got an interesting story, written in a concentrated burst after Nia Marie went to her producer Juan Arango and his wife for support following a breakup. You can hear the rawness of the emotions here, and the production includes a whiskey glass used as a percussion texture, a small detail that sits in the mix as a reminder of how close the song’s origins are to its surface. The vocal is so, so beautiful and it’s only matches by the quality of the song, which stays lodged in your brain for hours.
Nia Marie is originally from Philadelphia and began writing songs at 13, having trained on classical violin from the age of six before moving to piano. She graduated from Berklee College of Music and is now based in Queens, where her collaboration with Arango has been the engine of her recorded output. Her debut EP Because You Said I Love You established her R&B and soul direction, drawing from Jill Scott, Alicia Keys and Stevie Wonder. But Nia Marie is firmly in her own lane, and our lives are all the better for it. More of this please, Nia ❤️🔥
Michael Harris – Get U Back
Michael Harris’s “Get U Back” is a stunning piece of contemporary Detroit soul: deeply personal and proof that the Motor City still produces the real thing.
“Get U Back” is Harris’s fourth single, co-created with producer Ryan Freitas at his Detroit studio and written entirely by Harris from direct personal experience: the heartbreak of losing someone and the ongoing effort to win them back. And the hook in the chorus wastes no time in capturing that emotion beautifully. The composition and production is great while Harris brings the vocal, and the creative chemistry between them gives the track a spiritual intensity that sits in the Motown tradition without simply imitating it.
Harris is a Detroit-based singer-songwriter who records at a studio located directly behind the legendary Motown Museum, and the geography is not incidental: the Motor City soul tradition runs through his work as a living inheritance rather than a stylistic reference. His late mother taught him everything he knows about singing, and her influence shapes both the emotional register and the technical instincts of his performances. Since 2020 he has been on a sustained songwriting mission, accumulating enough material for three full albums. It’s a great single, and we hope there’s more in the pipeline for Michael Harris.