Good Blood

Right now you hear all these David Guetta songs, and that’s great; we love pop music,” says Nicole Albino, who along with her twin sister Natalie makes up the New York duo Nina Sky. She’s talking about the R&B you might hear on the radio – the popped-up version the major labels are cranking out in an attempt to counter the genre’s commercial decline. It’s not, though, the kind of R&B she wants to make. Nor does the singer Miguel, whose gorgeously restrained Sure Thing was one of last year’s finest R&B singles: “Everyone’s trying to recreate that one big Europop sound. You expect to hear the same kinds of songs that have the same kind of language and music, and a lot of it is regurgitated bullshit that I personally hate.”