Jorja Smith's "falling or flying" Leads The Pack In Our "R&B Season" Playlist Update

BYGabriel Bras Nevares1374 Views
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Glastonbury Festival Presents Live At Worthy Farm
GLASTONBURY, UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 21: In this image released on May 21st, Jorja Smith performs as part of the Glastonbury Festival Global Livestream “Live at Worthy Farm” at Worthy Farm, Pilton on May 15, 2021 in Glastonbury, England. The five hour special production is being filmed across Glastonbury Festivals Worthy Farm site with artists including Coldplay, Damon Albarn, HAIM, IDLES, Jorja Smith, Kano, Michael Kiwanuka, Wolf Alice and DJ Honey Dijon with Roisin Murphy. The global livestream is being broadcast on Saturday May 22 with encore screenings on Sunday May 23. (Photo by Anna Barclay for Glastonbury Festival via Getty Images)
6LACK, Jessie Reyez, YUME, Tory Lanez, Zacari, James Fauntleroy, Cleo Sol, and PLAZA also released stunning material this week.

As we enter the last quarter of 2023, our R&B Season playlist has more chill jams to get you through the colder months. Fortunately, one of the genre's most powerful and acclaimed voices just released a whole album's worth of material to dive into- and it's been a long time coming. Moreover, Jorja Smith's new album falling or flying shows off her versatility as an artist, as well as her growth in the five years she took to drop another full-length. In particular, the track "Broken is the man" is a soulful and tender cut with deep bass hits and, obviously, gorgeous vocals. It's a pallet and appeal the English artist is quite familiar with, and that expertise shines through.

Elsewhere, 6LACK and Jessie Reyez gave fans a taste of their chemistry and synergy on their latest collab single. "Homicide" is a slightly more upbeat, guitar-led, and mood-mixing song with smooth performances and a wavy trap-style beat. The title might indicate that this is a more aggressive cut on the R&B Season playlist, but the two create a nice narrative contrast of love and hate fueled by the same thing: passion. What's more is that said comparison even shows up in the production, melding heavy percussion with breezy instrumentation.

HNHH R&B Season Playlist: Stream

In addition to that, we have a new track featuring Tory Lanez, YUME's "Pull Up," on our new R&B Season playlist update. It keeps the energy rising with another trap-inspired soundscape, high-pitched singing, and a lot of atmosphere thanks to the synth pads. For his guest appearance, the Canadian artist taps into his higher register with more dynamic flows and extended notes. You can hear more of those falsetto vocals on the latest woozy and progressive offering from Zacari and James Fauntleroy, "Reverse."

Meanwhile, rhythm and blues fans, plus the soul heads out there, have another album to sink into with Cleo Sol's Gold. Her song "Desire" is a jazzy, easy-going, but nonetheless beautiful song. Finally, we also have PLAZA's drowned-out but still engagingly transformative jam "Other Side." Let us know what your favorite release of the week was in the comments below and come back to HNHH for more great R&B drops each week.

About The Author
Gabriel Bras Nevares is a staff writer for HotNewHipHop. He joined HNHH while completing his B.A. in Journalism & Mass Communication at The George Washington University in the summer of 2022. Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Gabriel treasures the crossover between his native reggaetón and hip-hop news coverage, such as his review for Bad Bunny’s hometown concert in 2024. But more specifically, he digs for the deeper side of hip-hop conversations, whether that’s the “death” of the genre in 2023, the lyrical and parasocial intricacies of the Kendrick Lamar and Drake battle, or the many moving parts of the Young Thug and YSL RICO case. Beyond engaging and breaking news coverage, Gabriel makes the most out of his concert obsessions, reviewing and recapping festivals like Rolling Loud Miami and Camp Flog Gnaw. He’s also developed a strong editorial voice through album reviews, think-pieces, and interviews with some of the genre’s brightest upstarts and most enduring obscured gems like Homeboy Sandman, Bktherula, Bas, and Devin Malik.
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