Candice Glover, “Damn”

The American Idol (season 12) winner will finally release her debut album, Music Speaks, on February 18. In the meantime, get into this scandalous single, where Glover sings the blues about falling in love with someone else’s man. It’s a catchy, beautifully crafted, audio soap opera drama over staccato piano chords and Candice’s mellifluous mid-range crooning her regrets.

Neneh Cherry, “Everything”

Neneh Cherry is gearing up to release her first album in about 18 years, so naturally she’s been teasing us with a couple of sounds from the project. Her latest release is “Everything.” The uniquely crafted track has a robotic beat produced by Four Test, which sonically can best be compared to what we imagine a Pharrell/Kanye West-circa-Yeezus would sound like. Neneh, who deviates from her “Buffalo Stance” sound, is singing about overcoming stress in a hyperactive world. Cherry’s album, Blank Project, is set for release February 24.

Kofi Black, “Ol’ School Love”

The Ghanaian singer/songwriter/producer takes it back to the ’90s with a boom-bap style ode to coming out fair in love and war. The beat has a vintage sound, but lyrically he’s calling for a love like our parents used to have. Black sings in a rich tenor, “Let’s love like they did back in the day when they worked it out and stayed/When they really were about it and they never ran away/That’s that old school love.” This is definitely worth the rotation, over and over again. Kofi plans to release a mixtape on Raekwon’s IceH2O Records. 

Wayne Marshall, Tru Colors

Wayne Marshall drops his first full-length album in almost 10 years today. The dancehall/reggae vet teamed up with Damian Marley (who produced nine out of the 13 tracks) to create another masterful ode to life. Marshall infuses reggae, pop, hip-hop, dancehall and R&B as he gets real about the highs and lows of life, love, money and fame.

Available at iTunes.

Starrene Rhett Rocque is a pop culture junky who often fantasizes about becoming a shotgun toting B-movie heroine, and aspires to save the world from the impending #ZombieApocolypse… In reality she’s a freelance entertainment journalist/blogger who muses about music, TV, movies and love. Follow her on Twitter @GangStarrGirl or at GangStarrGirl.com.