Playing everything together in one Leeds room, Gotts Street Park keep a warm, slow soul pocket for guest singers who walk in with grief, depression, and hope that belong to right now. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Kaicrewsade surrounds a young man’s come-up with trumpet, saxophone, singers, and 808s, and his faith turns real every time he hands the song to someone else. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

blackchai talks dread through the workday and aims it at the people who built the trap, and his writing turns concrete every time the pain gets an address. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

With a live band playing the old soul shapes, Ella Thompson sings promises built out of heartbreak, and the vintage form holds every one of them. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Near thirty, with everyone counting down her clock and her father long gone, Grace Carter takes on the job of raising herself and does it in songs built for the dance floor she used to hide on. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Chrissi keeps a running count on a man whose calls she can’t stop answering, and she writes every exit over live horns and cello with a comic’s timing and a clear eye for why he keeps getting back in. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Masta Ace was a sharper writer at thirty-five than he’d been at twenty-two. His supposed farewell album proved it, and then the label died. Our Milestones review: shatterthestandards.com/p/mi…

The former Angie B of the Sequence gave twenty years to other people’s records. Her second solo album was a grown woman running her own room. Our Milestones review: shatterthestandards.com/p/mi…

On her first country record, the Memphis singer takes the honky-tonk sinner’s part that country handed its men and sings Saturday night and Sunday morning as one life. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

With Patois and Zulu folded in beside his Yoruba and Pidgin, Fireboy DML carries one warrior from the church to the club and turns that warrior’s exhaustion into frank, affecting Afrobeats. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Back in the 2000s R&B he once wrote for other men, Lucky Daye lets a grown man’s bravado tell on itself, and his songs about waiting on her answer are funny, wounded and gorgeous. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of October 16th. We know it can be a task, so let’s help you cut through. #NewMusicDrops: shatterthestandards.com/p/ne…

Working with Dave Okumu and a live jazz-soul ensemble, Nao writes songs about slowing down and healing and hands the proof to the players, so rest comes out as something a whole room keeps time for. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

On her second album, Rachel Chinouriri plays the girl crying in the club toilets and fixing her face for the dancefloor, and her jokes about the walk home get closer to the truth than her tears. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…

Closing out his space-soul trilogy, the producer Misha sets a new singer in front of every song and gets his strongest music from the ones who sing about the room they are trying to leave. Our review: shatterthestandards.com/p/al…