Empress Of

Floating electronic beats, meticulously layered samples and dream-pop melodies—sounds like a common synth-pop formula these days, but as Empress Of, singer-songwriter Lorely Rodriguez sounds nothing short of singular. The artist follows her stellar 2015 debut, Me, with another stunner, Us. From the lush groove of "Love for Me" to the moody funk of "When I'm With Him," Rodriguez excercises restraint, leaving ample space in her arrangements to highlight her strong vocals. Across ten expertly deployed tracks, she finds a new softness without losing her music's danceable pulse for a sound that's well matched to her intimate, bilingual missives on romance, friendship and fitting in.