“P N P” by S Luv

Forget the big, bombastic intros that a lot of us have come to associate with some of the most important moments in pop music’s long and storied history; S Luv wants to get right down to business in her new single “P N P,” and sets a good example for her peers to follow along the way. There’s definitely an attitude in the first couple of seconds we encounter S Luv in this performance, but it’s one that creates so much friction between the instruments that it would be foolish not to have included it in this incendiary slow song. There’s no doubt in my mind that “P N P” would sound different without its singer and, more importantly, it wouldn’t pack nearly as big of a punch. 

This groove has got to be one of the most seductive I’ve listened to in a minute, but it’s not so structured and flat as to sound robotic beside the free vocal of S Luv. Contrarily, there’s a bit of a loose swing to the percussion that suggests we aren’t tethered to the overly consistent pop grind so many other pop singles are these days. Where others would be going left, this singer is moving to the right, but she’s made a point of carefully designing her performance style as to never sound like too much of an outlaw about it. The rules are there to be broken, but it’s only when she’s approaching a hook that we really learn how much of a rebel she can be. 

There’s a sensitivity to the vocal release in “P N P” that gives me a chill whenever I listen to the song in its entirety, but again, it’s on the conservative side comparative to what it probably could have been here. I don’t know a lot about S Luv thus far, being that this is the very first single I’ve ever listened to within her young discography, but I believe she’s holding back a little in these verses; her depth of melodicism seems to be so much bigger than she’s acknowledging with this performance, and if put into the right circumstances I can see it potentially bringing her some seriously intense international attention much sooner than later. 

I can’t wait to hear what S Luv is going to do with her sound next, and as of this moment, I can say that she’s definitely one of the more curious and exciting voices in the R&B underground that you need to be paying attention to this year. She’s both classical and contemporary in terms of vocal style, and with the right exposure on the commercial end of the FM dial, it’s easy for me to see her blowing away the competition without having to bring anything external into her present sound. There isn’t much work to be done on her artistry, and considering the focus she’s got in this initial offering, I believe she’s going to be an artist we can collectively count on for some time to come. 

Mindy McCall