New Music Friday: 6/7/24

Here are the rules: I listen to all 100 tracks of Spotify's New Music Friday playlist, except for anything that rhymes the n-word with itself more than three times, any screamo or screamo-adjacent stuff, any CCM that reveals its true intentions in time for me to hit the skip button, and any egregiously corny modern country music, typically performed by a dude with two first names. Having sifted through this week's playlist, here's what I actively enjoyed:

"Burning," Tems
Tems' sound is warm and inviting, anchored in the familiar sonic components of late 20th century R&B, yet it's also just off-center enough to feel fresh — which makes perfect sense, given that she's a Nigerian singer-songwriter-producer who assembled her first album with a fierce determination to forge her own path rather than following the expected steps for West African artists. I haven't heard the rest of Born in the Wild yet, but "Burning" is a mighty persuasive introduction.