Nalan – I’m Good. The Crying Tape (2022)

A track like Falling 4 U may invite comparisons to Erika de Casier or even PinkPantheress, but Nalan’s debut album takes a completely different turn than their D’n’B’n’R’n’B sound usually does. On I’m Good (The Crying Tape), the singer and MC, who is also known as slimgirl fat and a member of the Gaddafi Girls, uses a variety of different beats as a basis to find the right lid for every pot and turn the whole thing into a self-contained thing thanks to her vocal performance, which ranges from soft crooning to syrupy sleaze and freestyle house anthem throwbacks. If only someone had given Drake and Beyoncé this record on the borderline between hip-hop beats and club-adjacent grooves, we would have been spared a lot. Kristoffer Cornils