Listen Up

Music born of sultry samples, gospel influences, bold verses and creeping melodies

Amber Mark: Softly From Amber Mark’s upcoming debut album, Three Dimensions Deep (out January 2022), “Softly” is a sultry, languid tune that samples Craig David’s “Rendezvous” from Born To Do It, released in 2000—an era of R&B that Mark often expertly emulates. With syncopated percussion, strings and more, the song combines plenty of genres. The album promises “a musical journey of what questions you begin …

Hope Tala: Tiptoeing

From London-based singer-songwriter Hope Tala comes a bossa nova-tinged R&B track, “Tiptoeing.” The buoyant, layered tune (produced in collaboration with Greg Kurstin) is “about the dance we do when we’re at the threshold of romance,” Tala says. “It’s about treading carefully when you’re not quite sure what the other person is feeling, but desperately wanting to take a risk because you’re young and life is …

Amber Mark: Softly

From Amber Mark’s upcoming debut album, Three Dimensions Deep (out January 2022), “Softly” is a sultry, languid tune that samples Craig David’s “Rendezvous” from Born To Do It, released in 2000—an era of R&B that Mark often expertly emulates. With syncopated percussion, strings and more, the song combines plenty of genres. The album promises “a musical journey of what questions you begin to ask yourself …