Self Command

"Throughout my late teens and early twenties, songwriting was definitely a really cheap form of therapy for me," Rebecca Lovell, the more vocal half of the Georgia-bred, Nashville-based sister duo Larkin Poe, tells Apple Music. "But touring changed our perspective in wanting to write songs that would serve as connective tissue between people—songs that sound better when they're being sung by 200 people than they sound being sung by one voice." Self Made Man, the fifth album in the band's decade-long existence, reflects not only this intentional broadening, but a perfected process. Serious-minded students of Southern and classic rock, and the blues that influenced that, Rebecca and her sibling collaborator Megan Lovell produce themselves, program propulsive, earthy beats, and lay down almost all of the sinewy, dialed-in, hand-played instrumental parts. Says Rebecca, "I am every day kind of bowled over by Megan's ability to create melodies within her solos that are so memorable and very concise."

Deeply mystical, Jah9 has emerged from a chrysalis of poetry, dub and spirit to become a powerful femiNINE energy within a universal grassroots movement of consciousness. Inspired by the open spaces in the instrumental dub of 1970's Jamaican roots music, Jah9 sings with a voice that belies the dimensions of her physical body, from a soul much older than its current vessel; "reminiscent of that darkly operatic wailer for truth & justice, Nina Simone." Her philosophy–profoundly spiritual, and her style–Jazz on Dub. Jah9's sophomore album with VP Record's Note To Self elevates Jah9 to a new musical space combining her spiritual identity and sultry vocals to radio friendly contemporary reggae rhythms.