Ology

Commanding and versatile, Christopher Gallant’s voice demands to be centre-stage. It often had to push through an alt-R&B haze on 2014’s Zebra EP but is now set to cleaner, brighter R&B that’s literate in rock (“Talking to Myself”), slick pop (“Bourbon”) and ambient dubstep (“Open Up”). The genre-splicing always builds to a sky-scraping chorus but Gallant remains each song’s most infectious element. Unflinching in his honesty, he lays out his insecurities with a voice that shifts flawlessly from a careworn croon and aching falsetto to gale-force yearning.