ABRA

The "darkwave duchess" of Awful Records, an otherwise rap crew from Atlanta, Abra is a singer and songwriter who makes shadowy, mostly slow R&B that deviates from the slicker sounds of the genre's commercial artists. Born in New York and raised in London, she moved near Atlanta, Georgia when she was eight and felt like a misfit -- a situation that inspired her to learn to play guitar and write. She later connected with Awful's Father, who remixed her track "Needsumbody." Its video was uploaded in September 2014. The following year, as a full-fledged Awful artist, she released an EP, Blq Velvet, and quickly followed it with an album, Rose. Princess, a six-song EP with a more defined sound highlighted by the yearning neo-freestyle track "Crybaby," arrived in July 2016. It was issued through a partnership between Awful and Matador subsidiary True Panther Sounds. In 2017, Ninja Tune issued Rose on vinyl.