The UK R&B artist makes sultry new lento music, combining rap and flow for a triumphant release
Reuben Aziz is back, and this one is a real banger. City Girls is a slick R&B ballad featuring smooth deliveries blended together with a demure of silky vocal textures. Poetically elevated by a charming vocal inflection, the element of surprise continues for the singer as his temperament for diversity continues.
While its visualiser is billed as such, it’s really a music video—and a good one at that— tackling minimalistic narratives to showcase how well the song holds up on its own.
City Girls Captures the Art of Chilling
Layering vocals together with a blend of rap and slow-groove instrumentals, Aziz enters the realm of chill anthems once more, and it isn’t just his voice that catches honey like dew, but the production.
“How to say how I feel
You need protection
I’m here, but if you outside all summer
How you gon’ be my lover?
Yeah, I said I want your number
But, girl, you ain’t another number” – City Girls
In a statement, Aziz said: “My generation is less about being “outside” and learning the art of chilling and being home with your loved ones, which I’m trying to emulate. I wanted ‘City Girls’ to reflect that energy and be an intimate depiction of love that isn’t celebrated in the modern day.“
City Girls briefs the audience in stages, carrying listeners of different modes of appreciation. The song is introduced in an upbeat fashion, before the composition quickly shifts into a sombre series of moments, later scaled by Aziz’s rap verse.
It then breaks down, as the artist sifts through more ad-libs and vocalisations, bringing the audience into a state of calm before transitioning into an abyss of deep thought as the track starts to grind to a halt.
The Verdict
It’s a yes from me. The UK R&B scene is having its moment, and this counts towards that with phenomenal intrigue for what we can expect next. The Southampton-born musician has taken a liking to a varying cycle of musical patterns, and this expedition simmers to a point we can’t take it off the boil.
Streaming
City Girls can be streamed on all major platforms here.
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