Neu Elegant Animals

: Elegant Animals
Based: Philadelphia, U.S.
Listen: elegantanimals.bandcamp.com
Similar to: Most R&B stars with multi-million record contracts.

Walk the streets of Philadelphia with a strut in your step, a rose in your hand and a beautiful girl in the corner of your eye; you’re just about replicating the soulful romance that steals the scene on semi-anonymous R&B pop artist Elegant Animals’ debut work. His ‘Spectrum Nocturnal’ EP carries the charm of formidable, million-dollar selling superstars and the lack of image or identity that’s been handed to us mimics the early groundshaking of The Weeknd. This isn’t as colossal or grandly ambitious a first work as ‘House Of Balloons’, but a similar audience will fall head over heels in love with it.

It’s also a debut work of surprising twists and turns; the kind of structure-smashing, parameter-less fare that Shabazz Palaces would be proud of. As the shiny gloss of ‘Syndicate’ (the EP’s standout track) hits its peak, suddenly all barriers are broken down and the song transforms itself by way of a chiming instrumental closing section. This guy’s got original ideas in spades, and a voice that could lick clean the dirtiest of earbuds.

Spectrum Nocturnal EP by Elegant Animals