Dawn Richard: Goldenheart

***

Dawn Richard’s full-length solo debut is “a shining example of the limitless directions R&B could go,” said Gerren Keith Gaynor in Vibe. Goldenheart is “the genre-bender of all genre-benders,” mixing rock, soul, and atmospheric electro pop in service of the 29-year-old singer’s apparent effort to shake up the music industry’s status quo. A former member of Danity Kane, a top-selling female vocal group created on the P. Diddy reality-TV show Making the Band, Richard writes lyrics “packed with allusions” to warfare and sci-fi that all add up to a convincing personal mythology, said Jason Gubbels in Spin. But when weighing her achievement on Goldenheart, “don’t overlook her voice—notable as much for its lack of ostentation as for its versatility.” A “remarkably simpatico” producer, Druski, helps pull the whole effort together by deploying “an arsenal of synth pads, string settings, retro keyboards, and beats both varied and sharp.” Richard might not be a typical R&B star, but she’s “placed herself among R&B’s front ranks.”