Joyce Wrice

Los Angeles' singer-songwriter Joyce Wrice, daughter of a Japanese Buddhist and an African-American service man, debuted with the single Ain't No Need (2015) and the EP Stay Around (2016), cowritten with Darryl "Sir" Farris, who had just released his debut album Seven Sundays (2015), and produced by Ringgo "Mndsgn" Ancheta, who had just released his album Yawn Zen (2014). Her first album, Overgrown (2021), was instead produced by Dernst "D'Mile" Emile and continues in the smooth soul vein of her models Missy Elliott, Mariah Carey and Mary J. Blige. The highlight is the cocktail-lounge soul-jazz ballad Overgrown, which is also the best display of her vocal skills, followed by the less "smooth" ballads, like the festive and Caribbean-tinged Must be Nice and Losing (with nods to Shakira). She can't resist the appeal of Burt Bacharach's orchestral languor in Falling in Love.