The ex-Danity Kane affiliate just dropped an EDM-loaded track, “Physical”, a solo precursor to her studio album Blackheart, scheduled for a January 15th release. The 31-year-old singer, since disbandment, has been dropping singles, rolling out vids, and squashing the female dance/pop competition with the Diddy-sponsored EP Goldenheart (2013) and a handful of self-releases before it (Armor On, Whiteout). Her post-Kane career a wall-busting, genre-wide excursion, Richard doesn’t do layered-harmony, girly sounds anymore; she detached from commercial-pop protocol in ’09 and has been running from it ever since.
While Richard’s R&B-fit vocals remain her first-detected trait of urban sound appeal, its seamless meshing with dream pop sounds and EDM pace doubles its force. On “Physical”, a thumping bass drum reels in her velvet-voiced advances; “You look like you need an escape, so tell me why you’re here alone/ Let’s get physical…”
The track’s simplicity–a cute, bar-mingling anthem with bleeping synthesizers and a blushingly coy hook (“let’s be careless and vibe, yeah”), might be boringly simpler if it wasn’t Richard on it, but the R&B rebel’s magical effect is one far from basic.
Check out “Physical” below: