From Tampa, FloridaRecommended if you like Kwn, Tyla, OdealUp next Performing in Dallas, Texas, 1 November Destin Conrad has had a busy couple of years: three albums, one Grammy nomination and a string of collaborations with fellow R&B up-and-comers such as Bellah and Nia Smith. Pick any record and you’ll hear a different side of the 26-year-old. His spring 2025 debut Love on Digital pays its dues to the genre that raised him while swerving derivative cliches with small production quirks – a vocal glitch here, a skittering Jersey beat there.
Last summer’s Whimsy is a sprawling alt-jazz album that was written in two weeks, inspired by his time in a high-school jazz choir. A year later, Roadrunner arrived as a celebration of his Jamaican roots and queer identity – all languid reggae basslines, gyrating dancehall rhythms, drinks-in-the-air swagger and come-hither lyricism. Roadrunner doesn’t gloss over reggae and dancehall’s history of homophobia, nor does it simply condemn it.
On Chi Chi, Conrad interpolates the notorious chorus of TOK’s Chi-Chi Man, flipping its calls to burn anyone seen driving with gay men into a brag: “Yes, I know they don’t wanna see me drivin’ / So I make sure I drive off in a Benzy.” He makes defiance against bigotry seem easy – fun, even – and spends the rest of the album revelling in that freedom. Granted, those last two lines are about flexing on peers and teasing lovers. But what’s a turn up without a little bump and grind?
Olive Pometsey Madonna and Charli xcx – Danceteria Afterhours“I get off the train, Hackney Wick / I’m sweet 15 in a weird outfit”: Charli blends her origin story into the Confessions II highlight, PC Music and “flavoured cocaine” mingling with Basquiat and Haoui Montaug. LS Jane Remover – Beauty Sleep Heavily compressed even by her standards, the US singer-producer condenses her digicore-hyperpop style into a seething, tinny cube of sound – but graces it with one of her loveliest melodic top lines. BBT Lily Konigsberg – Free ByrdIf your song centres around the word “free”, it’d better feel that way.
Konigsberg fulfils the brief with a winsome, characterful indie jangler about betting on herself over a too-safe relationship. LS Tegan and Sara – Our Year (ft Lights)Another song eyeing the exits, set to wistful, jewel-toned synths and balmy horizon fantasias that make the Quin twins’ notion of quitting a tired town almost viscerally alluring. LS Catherine Elicson – Figure The front person of estimable Philly garage rock band Empath strikes out solo, defugging her band’s haze for a plaintive ballad on lo-fi electric guitar, with Vini Reilly-ish soloing.
BBT Morphine – CocoonFrom a forthcoming rarities album, Cocoon revels in the sleazy, disarmingly seductive brew of sax, idle crooning and heavy bass that made the Boston band – and late frontman Mark Sandman – so brilliant. LS Space Afrika – Pretty Gospel (ft Kiala Ogawa) Surfacing out of the cold, slow currents of ambient, post-rock and dub on the Mancunians’ new album Quiet Storm is this jazz ballad, with Ogawa’s kindly yet melancholy vocals reminiscent of Cleo Sol. BBT Subscribe to the Guardian’s rolling Add to Playlist selections on Spotify – or transfer it to Apple, Tidal or other services
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