Fast rising R&B/Soul singer/songwriter and fellow Chicago native, Ravyn Lenae will have you crushing in love with her amazing voice, vocals and melodies on her very timeless new EP, CRUSH. Which sees the 19-year-old taking it back to a more soulfully timeless time in music that shows she is an old soul in a young woman’s body, who probably has more soul and understanding of the greatly timeless music of the 70’s and 80’s than most people who actually grew up in or experienced those eras. Producer Steve Lacy, who’s most famous for his work with Odd Future-affiliated R&B group, the Internet, able to help provide the perfect inventive modernist soul backdrop for Lenae throughout. Whether it be the amazingly trippy 70’s vibes of the irresistibly obsessive and catchy lead single, Sticky, which also happens to be the opening track or the guitars on the second track, Closer (Ode 2 U), along with Lacy’s perfectly divine counter melody towards the end that really let Ravyn show off her amazingly ethereal voice.
You can really tell the influence of SZA, whom she toured with last year and sounds almost exactly like on the beautifully incredible latter mentioned record. A record so beautiful it can move or almost move you to tears too. The chemistry between Ravyn and Steve on Computer Luv is so beautifully seamless and magical that it literally has me in love with how heavenly their voices are together on this amazingly catchy and exotic tune. It’s like with each song new track, it just gets better and better. This proves true yet again on the very next record, The Night Song. Which is the perfect smooth jam to listen to late at night, as you listen to the pure gold voice of the singer give such relaxing great soothing vibes. Her very soothing heavenly angelic voice over the great Sparano giving off a little Erykah Badu vibes too that will have you literally falling in love. With a touch of Mya also sounding in the very amazing background vocals too. This is by far the best record on the whole EP and should be the next single. The closing track, 4 Leaf Clove, is also yet another great record, which is perfect to close out such a lovely and amazing EP.
This new project really showing how much Rayvn has truly grown and matured as an artist, as well as what a truly bright future she has. Lacy having a big part in her finally really being able to truly open up more about love and herself, I have a feeling this isn’t the last we will be hearing from this great duo. Perhaps a full-length album next on deck. Either way it’s great to see how much Rayvn has really evolved and I look forward to hearing a lot more of her in the future and showing what truly great musical talent we still have and have always had here in Chicago.