Over the past few years, the Atlanta singer Summer Walker has emerged as one of the biggest, most impressive stars on the R&B landscape. Records like Walker’s 2021 album Still Over It feature big stars and fit the sound of the moment, but Walker still uses them to get raw and vulnerable about her personal life. On her new EP, though, Walker goes in a different direction, finding a more languid and vaporous sound.

Summer Walker only announced her new project Clear 2: Soft Life earlier this week. (She calls it an EP, but it’s nine tracks in half an hour, which sounds more like a short album to me.) On the record, the sequel to 2019’s Clear, Walker lets her voice float over hazy, organic live-band grooves, channeling the sound and spirit of early Erykah Badu, through her own contemporary lens. Childish Gambino and J. Cole make appearances, and Solange and Steve Lacy co-produced the closing spoken-word track “Agayu’s Revelation.” Below, stream the new EP and watch Walker’s new video for “Pull Up.”

Clear 2: Soft Life is out now on LVRN/Interscope.