Neo-soul singer Leon Bridges’ has created a musical scrapbook of sorts. With a distinctly 1970s influence running throughout, Bridges pulls from genres such as folk, pop, funk and jazz to create 13 songs that each offer something different. Charged with nostalgia, summers in Bridges’ troubled childhood neighbourhood, his yearning for simpler times, moments of romance and his journey to finding peace are all captured in narrative-driven lyrics. What’s interesting about this album, though, is how it’s retrospective sound is combined with a polished, contemporary production so that it actually sounds like someone grounded in the present, but reaching out to the past. Worth the listen for Bridges’ silky-smooth vocals alone. LT

Out now on Columbia