Asha’s Awakening

The second album from Raveena Aurora is a conceptual epic whose protagonist, the titular Asha, is an ancient Punjabi princess living on an alien planet, where she is bestowed with advanced spiritual intelligence (as one does). However complicated that sounds, the Indian American artist unfurls the narrative with grace and subtlety, her feather-light falsetto floating over South Asian-inspired percussion and dreamy R&B and disco. Vince Staples drops by for a verse on the slinky, Timbaland-esque “Secret,” but the album’s most swoon-worthy moment is “Asha’s Kiss,” a collaboration with Asha Puthli—the Mumbai-born jazz-fusion singer whose “Space Talk” you’ve probably heard sampled in any number of hip-hop classics—that feels like an afternoon daydream. If that doesn’t get you in the mood for reverie, the 13-minute guided meditation (“Let Your Breath Become a Flower”) that closes the album should do the trick.

Incorporating South Asian instruments and singing in English and Hindi, the New York singer-songwriter crafts a concept album from the perspective of a Punjabi space princess.

The artist’s second album, which stars Vince Staples, is a concept-heavy celebration of her South Asian heritage

On her sophomore LP, the Queens-based vocalist delivers a sun-soaked wanderlust framed under airy R&B, lush South Asian grooves and futurist pop. When

Guided meditations, Punjabi folklore and swooning R&B – Asha's Awakening is a rejuvenating album from Raveena

The singer spans early 00s hip-hop, ambient tunes and pop bangers in her impressive major-label debut