Soul-searching, slow burns and cinematic grooves shape this week’s R&B selection. From intimate confessionals to textured neo-soul and jazz-tinted reflections, these tracks lean into feeling without losing their edge. Ready for these three banger?
Carmen Cummins – Quiet Nights
Carmen Cummins crafts a wonderfully tender, emotionally direct R&B cut rooted in resilience and inner strength
Quiet Nights, unfolds as a restrained slow-burn built on mellow beats and softly layered vocals. The production leans into spacious keys and subtle rhythm programming, giving the emotion room to breathe.
Carmen Cummins is a London-based songwriter drawing directly from personal experience, using music as both release and reflection. This single channels vulnerability and survival, delivering r&b with a truly human core that keeps the story telling grouned. A slow groove banger.
Shooqa 22 – Waaa (you make me slow)
Shooqa 22 glide between neo-soul and rap with a cinematic groove that’s gonna stay with you all year
Waaa (you make me slow), begins like a jazz ballad before opening into a multi-part neo-soul progression shaped by warm harmonies and understated drums. The arrangement shifts in tone and tempo, mirroring the rush and suspension of a crush. It’s a great vibe.
Shooqa 22 operate between contemporary rap and jazz-informed soul, folding spoken cadences into melodic passages with ease. Based in France and recently spotlighted by key tastemakers, the group continue to refine a sound that balances softness and rhythmic precision. Keep an eye on these guys.
Mark J Soler – Walking in the City
Mark J Soler delivers a groovy, reflective instrumental shaped by texture and uplifting energy
Walking in the City, is a fluid instrumental anchored by gentle percussion and jazz-leaning phrasing. The track moves with an unhurried pulse, capturing the rhythm of footsteps and passing streets. There’s some great guitar and organ work on this too.
Mark J Soler, born in Lyon and now based in Paris, draws on jazz, funk and progressive influences to shape his instrumental work. As a composer and multi-instrumentalist, this release forms part of a wider project exploring introspection and the inner life through sound. Essential listening this week.