Aw, it feels like it was only yesterday that we met Jorja Smith for the first time. Wearing trackie bottoms, a hoodie and her natural hair up in a ponytail, she was just 18 years old and brand new to London. We had already premiered the now critically-acclaimed debut single Blue Lights, told i-D readers to “keep an eye on this one”, and now — circa April 2016 — she was at i-D HQ for one of her first ever interviews. “If every month is as cool as this,” she told us. “I just want it to keep going!”
Cue two UK Top 40 singles, that Drake collaboration and the 2018 BRITs Critics Choice Award — it’s safe to say that everything’s coming up Jorja! And now it’s debut album time: Lost & Found, a tidy 12-tracker featuring now well-known singles Teenage Fantasy, Blue Lights and Where Did I Go?, as well as previously unheard ballads and the spoken word freestyle, Lifeboats.
But it’s Edinburgh producer Joe Powers aka Proc Fiskal (didn’t really need a DJ name with that surname, did he?) who opens today’s BEST NEW MUSIC PLAYLIST. His playful debut full length, Insula, is out today on Hyperdub and we’ve decided that the videogame garage mashup of Kontinuance is our fave. Californian musician Kadhja Bonet released an album today too. Childqueen, her second, is totally beautiful retro-soul magic that seems to be from another age entirely. Out on Fat Possum and Anderson .Paak’s OBE label, Kadhja wrote, played, produced and recorded the whole thing herself. Album track Wings is up next.
With her comeback on an absolute roll, Christina Aguilera has called on handsome D.C rapper GoldLink to feature on flute-laden new single, Like I Do. Snail Mail’s debut album Lush is pretty self-explanatory. And bitches by Tove Lo, Charli XCX, Icona Pop, Elliphant and ALMA is 10x better than Girls.
There’s loads more too, like Your Choice ft. Burna Boy from Lily Allen’s new album No Shame; Wiley’s ode to a festival fave, Balloon Mafia; 435 by Tyler, The Creator; and the return of Interpol. Plus new stuff from HMLTD, Lykke Li, Kim Petras, Laura Jean, Sorry, Khruangbin, Bab Stilz, Azusena and more. You’re welcome.