Now Playing

Recently I’ve been listening to my personalized radio station on Apple Music a lot. The algorithm usually does a good job in curating a station with a constant vibe during the entirety of your listening experience – I notice that it often puts songs that your friends on the platform are listening to that fall into whatever mood your station is going for at the time. For someone like myself, who listens to various different genres, I can never really expect what I’m getting into when I decide to listen to my station. So far, I haven’t been disappointed.

While listening to my station, a song from neo-soul artist Cleo Sol’s sophomore album "Rose in the Dark" came about – and I instantly added the whole tape. Prior to this, I already had a few songs by the West London artist Sol downloaded in my library. She grew up in a very musical family. Her parents met in a Jazz band - being raised by musicians of Serbian, Spanish, and Jamaican decent, she has been singing ever since she was a kid and was surrounded by rich musical cultures.

Rose in the Dark is a soulful project, the entire flow of the album makes you feel at ease. If I were to set up a scene of someone listening to this for the first time, they would be chillin’ in the coziest room of the house, with a glass of wine (or whatever makes you feel good), feet up, enjoying themselves in the present moment. Sol’s tone has an allure to it that reminds me of 80s/early 90s R&B, while still appealing to the current generation, I don’t think that old school R&B feel will ever get old. The project is extremely cohesive, not one song seems out of order or misplaced. I highly recommend checking out not only "Rose in the Dark", but Cleo Sol’s entire discography to see how she led up to this seamless piece of work.

My top 3 tracks are Her Light, Rewind, and When I’m in Your Arms.