Un/limited Love

“This is a graduation project, a graduation into womanhood and adulthood,” London-based singer George Riley tells Apple Music of *Un/limited Love*. “It’s about expressing my sexuality and creating space for fun.” Since the release of her debut mixtape in 2021, *interest rates, a tape*, Riley has put her majestic voice to use in expressing the pain, ecstasy, and difficulty in coming of age. Referencing soul, R&B, and the dance-floor thump of breakbeats and house, Riley’s music has been equally at home in headphones as well as through communal speaker stacks. Previously working with a specific producer for each project, Riley’s latest release, *Un/limited Love*, sees her experimenting over six tracks with everyone from Glaswegian maximalist Hudson Mohawke to London-based Actress, LA’s Nick Sylvester, and Detroit’s John FM. The result is crafted for the heat of the club, traversing majestic orchestral strings on “Lust,” earworming synth-pop on “Elixir” and rhythmic freneticism on “S e x.” “I’ve played lots of shows in clubs and I wanted more music to speak to the joy of that space,” Riley says. “It’s a sexy set of songs about falling in love with myself.” Read on for Riley’s in-depth thoughts on the EP, track by track. **“Lust”** “I first worked on this song with the producer Actress and it took shape as a dance track with these questioning chords and lyrics about meeting someone and not knowing what type of person they might turn out to be. I then sent it to an amazing arranger, John Keek, who wrote these beautifully emotional strings parts and it made me realize the track needed to go in another direction that was less dance-floor-focused. Loraine James put on the finishing touches with a wonderfully dissonant outro.” **“Skin”** “‘Skin’ is just a sexy song. It’s a track about lusting after someone and finding that initial spark where your chemistry is great, before it all goes downhill! I was working with the producer John FM in Detroit, and he put a Jersey club beat on the tune and then, when I took it to Actress, he sped it up and made it bassy. I love bass because I’m Caribbean. It’s in my blood.” **“Elixir”** “This is really a pop song with dance-music clothes on. I had already written the hook and when I went to LA to work with Nick Sylvester, the song went through a lot of different versions. It veered from being more pop to then pulling it back for the club, and eventually we found a middle ground where the track could exist in the club and on the radio. It’s also a bit of an homage to one of my favorite Detroit producers, Omar S.” **“Star”** “John FM came up with this arresting siren-and-snare pattern when we were in the studio together, and I just loved how it grabs you. I immediately started freestyling over it, and that’s what we kept for the final track. The song almost didn’t make the project since it doesn’t have a normal structure, but I really liked how the mix came out. It has ended up becoming one of my favorites.” **“S e x” (feat. Hudson Mohawke)** “I love making music with Hudson Mohawke because we both work so quickly. We got together in LA and were just bashing ideas out, including this track, which ended up becoming an outlier on the project. While the other numbers are friendly and fun, I wrote this when I was really angry and it probes the darker side of a relationship, when a power imbalance plays out. Since I’ve been playing it live I find it really empowering, as it gives me the chance to tell all the entitled people I’ve come across to fuck off!” **“Satisfy You”** “I’m a huge bell hooks fan, and “Satisfy You” takes inspiration from her work on how we can learn to truly love and care for people in our lives. It’s a song about what it means to really love somebody, while also making sure you don’t erase your needs in the process. It’s nice to have an R&B track on the project too, as it nods to my background as a singer and lover of R&B and soul.”