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Refresh Playlist: New Music for the Week—Featuring Lucky Daye, Siren and the Sea, and Kelly Rowland!
Folks, it’s time to take your weekly break from all that super concerning content on your timeline, and refresh your mind by grabbing a glass of water, taking a stretch break, and hopping into these three new music releases from locally loved and nationally acclaimed artists.
Table for Two, Lucky Daye
Appropriately arriving a couple days before Valentine’s, R&B singer/songwriter Lucky Daye dropped this new EP Table for Two. All the way from its “Ego Trip” opening skit to “Falling In Love (feat. Joyce Wrice)” the project is an accurate representation of the trials and tribulations of looking for love in the digital age. The seven-track EP is 22 mins and 33 seconds long (if synchronicity is your thing), and every song (except the intro) includes an excellent featured vocalist. Stand-out tracks cannot be narrowed down here. The first proper track, “How Much Can a Heart Take (feat. Yebba)” sees the two harmonizing beautifully about the fickleness of dating and struggles of getting to know new people: “How much can a heart take/ When feelings change like phases of the moon?…/You found me in a hard space.” Another highlight is “My Window (feat. Mahalia)”, which tastefully samples and interpolates Missy Elliot’s “I Can’t Stand the Rain.” Perhaps my favorite is “On Read” with its bluesy guitar licks and featuring the always great Tiana Major9, who offers the opposite perspective to Daye’s Left-On-Read Blues. Right in the middle is another great one, “Access Denied (feat. Ari Lennox),” which has a pulsating, danceable beat that lets Lennox and Daye masterfully articulate the vibe of a romantic chase. If you can’t get enough of the project (like me), check out this visual poem he made to accompany it.
“Fountain of Youth,” Siren and the Sea
On February 19, Portland’s Siren and the Sea (AKA singer/songwriter Cristina Cano) dropped a new single called “Fountain of Youth,” presumably from her forthcoming album. Over its upbeat 80s era beat—with programmed drums, synth, and a groovy bass lead by Ethan Fox Tucker—Cano aptly sings in the second verse: “I’m not that close to imperfection/And every while I lose my direction/Luckily, I’m not here to be a woman/For you.” In the final chorus, she ends on an uplifting note: “And I want to believe that I can climb a mountain/And it’s all that I want to finally feel grounded/And I want to believe that I have found the fountain of youth/Nothing can stand in my way.”
“Flowers,” Kelly Rowland
This isn’t the first time Kelly Rowland has been highlighted in this column and it won’t be the last! Released on February 19, Rowland’s new EP, simply titled K, kicks off with a stunning and vibrant visual for emotional opening track “Flowers,” which packs slow-crawling production that lets Rowland’s lyrics and vocal agility shine: “You know you gon’ get all of your flowers/I’ll let you know it/Every time I get the chance/Oh, let me bow my head.” The six-track EP also includes previously released singles “Black Magic” and the danceable “Hitman,” as well as new bops like “Crazy,” the calming grooviness of “Speed of Love,” and “Better.” This should definitely hold us over until her next studio album arrives.
Want to experience some live music from your couch? Check out Fountaine performing an extended set at Polaris Hall! Tickets for the virtual event are available here.