Albums of the week: Dua Saleh, Rostam, Kevin Morby, Jasmine Myra

Of Earth & Wires 

Dua Saleh

(Ghostly International)

Perhaps best known for playing Cal in Netflix’s Sex Education, Dua Saleh is a multi-hyphenate (poet-activist-actor-musician) whose talents spill over so generously it’s hard to define them. Their musical output has no tidy genre but mostly fluctuates around R&B; their concept-heavy 2024 debut, I Should Call Them, found two lovers reconnecting in apocalyptic end times.

Romantic complexities continue to inform its engaging follow-up. Even though Saleh has relocated to LA, their experience as a Sudanese-American raised in Minneapolis feeds strongly into their work. Of Earth & Wires subtly incorporates elements of Sudanese music in Saleh’s glitchy sound-world, caught somewhere between contemporary and ancient. Trauma, longing and AI anxiety all provide rich loam. Thanks to ICE in Minnesota, wildfires in California and the Sudanese war, Saleh’s homes are at the epicentre of current events. Climate change-induced flooding in Wales – where Sex Education was filmed – prompted the deceptively easy-going track Flood, one of three cuts on which Justin Vernon (AKA Bon Iver) guests.

On the sultry Anemic, Saleh performs with the Netherlands-based Sudanese singer Gaidaa, while All Is Love, featuring the poet Aja Monet, hits home with a track that considers synaesthesia and PTSD. Kitty Empire

American Stories

Rostam

(Matsor Projects)

As an original member of Vampire Weekend and as producer for Charli XCX, Haim, Carly Rae Jepsen and Frank Ocean, Rostam Batmanglij is no stranger to sublime pop. But, curiously for someone so evidently talented, his solo material has never quite reached the same heights. 

His third album is undeniably bold, given the current geopolitical climate: not only does its cover feature an upside-down American flag, musically it embraces his Iranian heritage, with prominent acoustic and electric saz (or fretted lute) contributions from Amir Yaghmai, most notably on Back of a Truck – where the instrument blends magically with pedal-steel guitar – and the piano-led The Weight.

The east-meets-west instrumentation is part of the maximalist approach to these ornate songs. Hardy is high-end chamber pop, which pleasingly harks back to Vampire Weekend’s M79. But while the musical execution can’t be faulted, there’s very little here that is memorable, not helped by Rostam’s lacklustre vocals. Indeed, listening to The Road to Death and Come Apart feels like hard work, which one assumes was not the desired effect. Phil Mongredien 

Little Wide Open

Kevin Morby

(Dead Oceans)

The backdrop to Kevin Morby’s eighth album, produced by Aaron Dessner of the National, is the American midwest: small towns, endless skies, the sense of something waiting for you just beyond the horizon. If you enjoyed Morby’s previous two records in particular – which chronicled his life back in Kansas City, where he grew up and now lives after stints in New York and Los Angeles – you’re on safe ground here, as the guitarist offers up more warm Americana.

He welcomes us into the Badlands, a place “where the sky expands and you and I expire”, before we’re treated to roof-raising backing vocals from Justin Vernon. Morby’s voice is sweetest on Junebug, on which he performs a call and response with himself over candied harp, while I Ride Passenger features sublime banjo and fiddle interplay. But it’s the eight-minute title track, on which he reflects on what it’s like to hear his relationship dissected in the songs of his long-term partner Katie Crutchfield (who performs as Waxahatchee), that most sticks in the mind: “Use all our insides to decorate the parade / Turn me inside out, babe / Hang me on display.” It’s a savage lyric, yet Morby sounds more contemplative than bitter – the mark of a true folkie, still figuring it all out. Ellen Peirson-Hagger

Where Light Settles

Jasmine Myra

(Gondwana Records)

Since the release of her 2022 debut album Horizons, the British saxophonist Jasmine Myra has made a gently enveloping ensemble jazz sound her signature. Often accompanied by harp and breathy flute, she has across two albums produced mood music that straddles the line between calming ambience and gentle insistence. 

On Where Light Settles, Myra leads a 13-piece ensemble through intricately layered yet accessible instrumentals. The melodies are bright and infectious, shared among piano, flute and saxophone on the meditative Reflections, and plucked with pizzicato strings on Fragments. Meanwhile, sprightly folk influences emerge in the finger-picked guitar and saxophone duet of Echo and in the yearning harp lines of In an Instant. Throughout, Myra’s saxophone sits within the ensemble rather than leading, creating a consistent richness. When she does take a solo on the closing number, it’s a well-earned moment of catharsis.

While some listeners might be waiting for an eruption of intensity, it is rare to hear a record that so luxuriates in jazz’s quieter side. Myra’s is a soft sound that leaves room for the imagination to take hold. Ammar Kalia 

One to watch: Kwn

Despite being born in the year 2000, after what many would call the golden era of R&B, Kwn is a student of the 1990s. The 26-year-old British artist counts among her inspirations Jodeci, Dru Hill and Brandy, and you can hear their influence on her smooth, swaggering, nostalgic songs. She has amassed millions of monthly Spotify listeners, as well as fans in fellow R&B singer Kehlani and the British group Flo. 

K Wilson, born in Walthamstow, east London, rose to prominence as Kwn with her viral song Do What I Say, specifically the heavily circulated intro on which she sings: “Paint your nails the way I like ’em / I might paint mine too / Cause I know a place I can hide ’em / And it’s inside you.” Kwn is queer, and her explicit lyrics about women making love with women are part of why she stands out. Her music also has a singular tone: she’s a heavy user of Auto-Tune, layering manipulated vocals over dark, trappy beats for her debut album With All Due Respect, made from her bedroom studio.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing. When her label dropped her in 2024, she persevered and released what ended up being her biggest song to date in Worst Behaviour. This hard work was enough to win her a nomination for best R&B act at this year’s Brits, while her US tour sold out in less than 30 minutes. Kadish Morris

Idea of Love and Touch Myself, a new double single by Kwn, will be released on 22 May on RCA Records

Photographs by Braden Lee, Matthew Weinberger, Chantal Anderson, Emily Dennison, Michelle Helena Janssen