It’s been a while since we heard a new solo record from the golden-voiced chanteuse, Becca Stevens – 2017, in fact, when she released her magisterial fourth album, ‘Regina.’ Now the versatile Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter – who last year appeared on David Crosby’s Lighthouse band project – is back with a new five-track EP, ‘Wonderbloom,’ which follows in the wake of a recent successful stint touring Europe with Snarky Puppy.
Released on Snarky Puppy’s Ground UP label, the EP offers a tantalising taster of Stevens’ fifth long-player, also titled ‘Wonderbloom,’ due early next year. Its five tracks are stylistically diverse, reflecting the eclecticism that has always been at the heart of the North Carolina-born singer’s genre-bending music.
The opener, ‘I Wish,’ is very different from the wispy, jazz-tinged folk that Stevens has previously served up. It’s a thudding, sinewy, synth-heavy R&B groove that seems to draw inspiration from electro-soul bands like The System and Change. What makes it different, though, are Stevens’ ethereal vocals.
‘Good Stuff’ is an infectious slice of poppy electronica with a chorus that also has a hint of ’80s R&B in its musical DNA. In sharp contrast, the mellow meditation that is ‘Between You & Me’ is more typically what we’ve come to expect from Stevens, who channels the spirit of Joni Mitchell.
Stevens shows a robust, more belligerent, side on the strident ‘I Will Avenge You,’ while the closing ‘Halfway’ is dreamily hypnotic, with stacked vocals shimmering over a gently-pulsing groove.
‘Wonderbloom EP’ is out now to download and stream. The album follows on March 20th, 2020.
Read SJF’s 2016 interview with Becca Stevens here:
