From Philly Boys' Choir To Orchestral R&B: Avé Emerges With Debut Valentine’s Day Single

At any given time, there’s a skew of artists working in R&B that seem to both articulate the genre’s supreme malleability and also be completely at peace standing in place as though to represent the throughline of it. They’re in receivership of the old shit to be the vessel through which the new shit comes. Welcome Philly native and Philadelphia Boys’ Choir alum Avé to these people of good faith.

Just released today, their first single, “Your Heart Belongs To Somebody Else,” has a title that could have been the title of the first R&B song ever written, but has a snap that calls to mind that wonderful throughline to the now. You might hear The Stylistsics in those cellos and Terrence Trent D’Arby (!) in the bravado and presence of that Sam Smith/Mary J. Blige collab record in the space of just a few seconds. Tying it all together is the accompanying video, that’s clearly shot in that Black Swan-looking February gray Philadelphia that we have all been living in for the last few months. It’s a mood.