Givēon's Next-Gen Old-School R&B Heartbreak

Turn the lights down low: This classic crooner offers a stunning depiction of love at the boiling point.

- By Mankaprr Conteh

With his oaky baritone, Givēon often sounds like he teleported to us from the 1970s. In the rapid-fire internet age, his love songs – frequently lost-love songs – are unhurried. At his best, he’s like a barrel-aged cognac – warm, earthy, and mature. Still, when he rose to prominence at around the age of 25 about five years ago, in a landscape where more modern, edgy alternative R&B dominated, he allowed his steady, soulful production to ride on top of subtle rap drums; across his debut EP, Take Time, and album, Give or Take, he even dipped into cloudy MC cadences, too.

Now, on his sophomore LP, and well established as a singular voice, there’s nothing “alternative” about his musical approach. Beloved is almost barren of the hip-hop flourishes that peppered his earlier work, and instead leans all the way into the orchestral R&B of another time, lush with searing strings and the crash of real hi-hats. Rich and authentic, Beloved feels indebted to Al Green, Philly soul, the Jackson 5, and Blaxploitation soundtracks.