Eli Derby has returned with LOVESHY, an EP built around the possibility of believing in romance again. It blends R&B and pop with touches of jazz, and leans on his voice and live musicianship to work through desire, attraction and the uncertainty of falling for someone new.
Derby first drew attention posting covers on social media, where his voice introduced listeners to an artist who would soon move past other people's songs. That shift began with the 2021 single Gaslight and continued through the EPs Left on Read and More Than Friends. He also set up his own label, Polymarth Unit, along the way.
His catalogue since then includes Lately, featuring 6LACK, and Cadillac Dreams, built around an interpolation of Etta James's I'd Rather Go Blind. Clash reports the releases have taken his music to nearly 40 million streams.
The musical grounding goes back much further. Born in Maryland, Derby started playing drums in church at the age of two and later added piano, guitar and vocals. He names Prince, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston among his influences, which shows in an approach that keeps live instrumentation inside polished contemporary R&B.
The EP is sequenced as an arc. Who's There For You opens with his vocal front and centre, What Then widens the palette with jazz and pop textures, and the focus track Fumble sharpens the uncertainty running underneath.
From there it moves through Lose In The Moment, which keeps the writing short and direct, and Trigga Happy, where a line about being sick of mind games carries the exhaustion of indirect communication. Feels Like Home closes the record on a calmer, more reassuring note.
That movement from frustration to reassurance is what gives LOVESHY its shape, and Clash reads its optimism as a willingness to stay open when certainty is not available. The EP is logged on the release calendar and sits between pop and R&B and soul, in a season that also brings Dawn Richard's Creole Culture.
The facts
- LOVESHY is a new EP from Eli Derby
- He first drew attention posting covers on social media
- His 2021 single Gaslight began his own songwriting
- Earlier EPs include Left on Read and More Than Friends
- He founded his own label, Polymarth Unit
- Clash reports his music has neared 40 million streams
- He started playing drums in church at the age of two
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