Yaya Bey

Following up 2022’s sprawling ‘Remember Your North Star’, NYC’s Yaya Bey meditates through her internal struggles on ‘Ten Fold’, breezing across neo-soul, lite disco funk and dusty boom bap. RIYL Erykah Badu, Sudan Archives, Kaytranada.

If its predecessor dealt with the external world – Bey’s relationships and the traumatic scars that were left in the aftermath – ‘Ten Fold’ turns the focus inward, letting Bey untangle her spiritual world with the same soulful grooves and sardonic asides. She’s still looking for love, but uses her stories to develop a personal portrait, looping her words around beats that never lose the motion of vintage neo soul. ‘the evidence’ is as jerky and effortlessly smooth as vintage Dilla, with a melody-rich staccato bassline and sampled pads that swirl around Bey’s voice. “Hold on, hold on, hold on,” she repeats, humming at the groove. Lead single ‘chasing the bus’ is sunnier still, as Bey remembers a cheating lover, almost whispering over live bass plucks and euphoric Rhodes vamps.

But she doesn’t let her ideas stagnate for a second: ‘eric adams in the club’ is a sci-fi tinted nod to East Coast club, featuring Exaktly, and ‘so fantastic’ pairs her with dancehall MC Grand Daddy I.U. It’s over in a second, but shows Bey’s versatility – ‘Ten Fold’ is a soul album, but it’s got scope.