Chlöe featuring Chris Brown

With Chlöe’s debut solo studio album, ‘In Pieces’ to be released at the end of next month, her latest single ‘How Does It Feel’ really needed to blow our expectations out of the water. The track, a duo with musical veteran Chris Brown, is, quite honestly, R&B perfection.

Met with critical acclaim, Chlöe’s first solo single, ‘Have Mercy’, was always going to be an arduous one to beat commercially. This was ultimately proved by the unjustifiably lacklustre chart performance of a string of singles that followed – namely ‘Treat Me’, ‘Surprise’ and ‘For the Night’. It is important that we recognise the emphasis upon ‘unjustifiably’ here as sonically, these releases established Chlöe as one of the great, idiosyncratic talents of contemporary R&B music and for this reason, should’ve appealed to a prominent American market.

Aside from this, ‘How Does It Feel’s’ signature R&B sound can most likely be credited to production being handled by hip-hop hulk, Hitmaka. Though Chlöe is no stranger to collaborating with big-name producers, such as, but not limited to, London on da Track, Murda Beatz and Oak, ‘Hitmaka’ is essentially synonymous with bass-heavy, down-tempo slow-jams. Thus, he is, for want of a better phrase, ‘the perfect fit’ for the audibly ‘no-air’-esque, R&B power ballad Chlöe was most likely trying to achieve with this record. Additionally, Brown’s verse is nostalgically faultless in that lyrically, the song is idyllically reminiscent of the romantic, soul influenced tracks that fundamentally characterised Brown’s early discography e.g. 2007’s ‘With You’ and 2016’s ‘Back to Sleep’.

Put simply, I adore this record. Sonic, lyrical and melodic R&B at it's very best. I definitely see this track catapulting Chlöe into global stardom and overall, is a very, very strong lead single for the upcoming album. 5 stars!