The Switch

R&B maverick Emily King gets even freer on her second album. Her breezy, agile sound is both sensual—the bass-bumping, sonically sumptuous \"Sleepwalker\"—and playful, as on the quirkily cool title track where her Princely falsetto dances over staccato percussion. Even the upbeat cuts blend minimalism and warmth. Take \"Good Friend,\" which layers her voice oh-so-delicately over loping low end that later spills into a funky, booming guitar solo. In looking fondly back at early \'90s energy and the languor of \'70s funk, King is synthesizing the future of soul.