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R&B
Soft Infrastructure
Nadia Osei
"Osei writes R&B that feels lived-in and specific — this is personal music made with real craft."
Soft Infrastructure is a quietly confident R&B record. Nadia Osei's voice is the instrument everything else is built around, and she uses it with a restraint that makes the moments of full expression feel genuinely earned. The production is warm and unhurried, with live instrumentation — bass, keys, occasional strings — that gives the record a tactile quality. Osei's songwriting is specific in a way that makes it universal; she's writing about particular moments and feelings, not archetypes. The album's second half is stronger than its first, building to a closing stretch of three songs that are among the best R&B writing of the year. This is a record that rewards patience and attention.