L'Rain

Written and recorded following the sudden passing of her mother, Brooklyn multi-instrumentalist Taja Cheek crafts a dizzying, deeply moving collage of psychedelic soul and avant-garde pop. The debut album heavily utilizes degraded tape loops, voicemail recordings, and erratic time signatures to blur the boundaries between R&B grooves and formless ambient grief. It established her as a remarkably inventive, emotionally resonant new voice.