5 Songs I Love w/ Jony Shelby

Following the release of his track, 'Crater', we caught up with the versatile R&B artist Jony Shelby and asked him about his 5 favourite songs at the moment. Find out more below:

1. James Blake - You're Too Precious

I love too many of James' songs as he's been a huge influence on me, but this is one of my favorites that I've been bumping lately. I love the off-kilter juxtaposition of it, giving it an almost futuristic-like swagger. And James, as usual, is such a genius at vocal manipulation and inflexions, the quick tremolos he's been applying to his vocals lately are pretty other-worldly. The overall vibes he creates here are very intimate and raw, but in a fresh way.

2. Childish Gambino - Me and Your Mama

This track when I first heard it absolutely blew me away honestly. Donald, coming off of the back of his wildly successful 'Because The Internet' album, was almost universally expected to drop another hip-hop joint. Then he came out with this gem. The song is a 7-minute long orchestral journey, primarily taking inspiration from prominent soul artists of the early 80's and reimagined for today. His soaring vocals when they finally drop on the first verse are incredible, with the stellar instrumentation matching the dynamics of his every word. One of the best musical surprises ever for me.

3. SOPHIE - Hard

This track is the pure definition of style over substance, but for me it's one of my absolute favorites in terms of cutting-edge sonics. SOPHIE, always blowing minds with her future-proof production, delivers a wild pop track here that's incredibly tight and very unpredictable. I really like how the repeated refrain causes you to almost take attention away from the vocals themselves and focus mainly on the glitzy instrumentation. Also the outro is so clean.

4. Kanye West - Runaway

In terms of pure artistry, anyone who knows me well knows that Kanye is one of my biggest inspirations. And this song, in my opinion, is perhaps his magnum opus. While it's a track that most everyone has probably already heard, don't let that detract from the amazing execution of it all. Lengthy in duration, I love how Kanye is able to almost completely define himself and the way others view him in a single track. And always the master of production, he delivers a majestically melodic beat full of dynamic high and lows, all culminating to a captivating overdriven outro which was very cutting edge for the time. Top 5 Ye easily.

5. Kid Cudi - Mr. Solo Dolo

This was the first Cudi track that I ever heard and till this day it's one of the ones that still resonates the most with me. As soon as you hit play on the song, you're instantly transported to this almost melancholy world, with Cudi painting a dark instrumental aesthetic. His vocals and his flow perfectly complement the mood of the track, with the sharp lyricism that made it so easy to relate to the woes that he was illustrating. I'd never heard anything like it at the time. All these factors equated into the conditions that led me to initially fall in love with his sound.

Make sure to follow Jony on Instagram and Facebook and listen to his latest single "Crater" below.