Shatter the Standards

We are dedicated to celebrating milestones, unearthing lesser-known gems, and promoting discussions around LPs and new music that might not receive attention.

[Soulpolitan @Soulpolitan]

Plus Snoh Aalegra’s sixteen past lives, a Durham singer who took her name from Showgirls, and one candlelit slow jam we couldn't get behind.

The list: https://t.co/Fj3i9t3I9V

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

With a live band playing the old soul shapes, Ella Thompson sings promises built out of heartbreak, and the vintage form holds every one of them.

Our review: https://t.co/jrUO8bcPqT

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

Near thirty, with everyone counting down her clock and her father long gone, Grace Carter takes on the job of raising herself and does it in songs built for the dance floor she used to hide on.

Our review: https://t.co/M4yIUrWppv

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

Chrissi keeps a running count on a man whose calls she can’t stop answering, and she writes every exit over live horns and cello with a comic’s timing and a clear eye for why he keeps getting back in.

Our review: https://t.co/voWqisqitJ

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

Masta Ace was a sharper writer at thirty-five than he’d been at twenty-two. His supposed farewell album proved it, and then the label died.

Our Milestones review: https://t.co/ibXmG4H0rg

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

The former Angie B of the Sequence gave twenty years to other people’s records. Her second solo album was a grown woman running her own room.

Our Milestones review: https://t.co/8IrGzxm3v9

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

On her first country record, the Memphis singer takes the honky-tonk sinner’s part that country handed its men and sings Saturday night and Sunday morning as one life.

Our review: https://t.co/GYbuA8esdw

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

With Patois and Zulu folded in beside his Yoruba and Pidgin, Fireboy DML carries one warrior from the church to the club and turns that warrior’s exhaustion into frank, affecting Afrobeats.

Our review: https://t.co/OhHZU5Vq0R

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

Back in the 2000s R&B he once wrote for other men, Lucky Daye lets a grown man’s bravado tell on itself, and his songs about waiting on her answer are funny, wounded and gorgeous.

Our review: https://t.co/Ir0xbOLtRn

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

As new albums and singles get constantly flooded into our radar, look no further than skimming through the release week of October 16th. We know it can be a task, so let’s help you cut through.

#NewMusicDrops: https://t.co/hBWzChsxox

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

Working with Dave Okumu and a live jazz-soul ensemble, Nao writes songs about slowing down and healing and hands the proof to the players, so rest comes out as something a whole room keeps time for.

Our review: https://t.co/mHzEhQ4INu

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

On her second album, Rachel Chinouriri plays the girl crying in the club toilets and fixing her face for the dancefloor, and her jokes about the walk home get closer to the truth than her tears.

Our review: https://t.co/a1ToCqpvMQ

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

Closing out his space-soul trilogy, the producer Misha sets a new singer in front of every song and gets his strongest music from the ones who sing about the room they are trying to leave.

Our review: https://t.co/uGsRANGzr7

[Blackpolitan @Blackpolitan]

Who is the Black Messiah? We trace D’Angelo’s spiritual inheritance, finding salvation in ordinary Black lives and in the power of breath, love, and music to trouble an oppressive world.

More: https://t.co/QsLaNU77ft

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

Listen to new releases from @JohnnyVenus_, @alaniofficial & @adrianyounge, @NyotaParker, #StrangeFruitProject, @Q@QuailP_, @louisbakermusic, #1999WRITETHEFUTURE & @@SOMHIERO, @rhyslangston, @TheArtistMerna, @Gabcilmi, @UltraMan7000 & #RadBrown, @fayemeanafayemeana, @KianaVee, #KOLAKALE, and #TMason.

Wednesday Roundups: https://t.co/7Ngj7MrjSI

[Blackpolitan @Blackpolitan]

A reluctant encounter with Voodoo becomes a reconsideration of pleasure and political freedom. D’Angelo’s music raises questions about how Black artists inherit, express, and sell desire.

More: https://t.co/SKRuWzEINM

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

Told since boyhood that his turn was next, Tymain Robbins writes healing and ambition on one clock, and the strain of that long wait gives his conscious rap its subject and its best writing.

Our review: https://t.co/WIQvEIetMt

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

Let the Dirt Say Amen raps the believer who is back at the altar every week. Putting Scripture, Brownsville, and rap money into one confession about grace and the guilt that rides along with it.

Our review: https://t.co/YLjfCvRaa3

[Shatter the Standards @ShatterSTS]

With no crowd yet to answer him, KIN aims his boasts and his prayers at the same quiet room, and Saint Kay’s loops make that room worth sitting in.

Our review: https://t.co/0Dre1adeL9

[Blackpolitan @Blackpolitan]

Smokey Robinson, Al Green and Prince offered D’Angelo different possibilities for the voice. His singing reveals how closely he studied them while developing his own approach to soul.

More: https://t.co/3pbAyVfWlz