Joyce Wrice sets her second album Machiko for 9 October

Joyce Wrice has finally put a date on Machiko. Her second album arrives on Friday 9 October, runs to 14 songs, and it turns out she has been releasing pieces of it all year without saying so.

Break Me In came out in January and Crack The Code followed in May, and both were left to stand on their own for months before being confirmed as part of the record. That is an unusual way to run a campaign, and it has the effect of making the announcement itself feel like a reveal rather than a press release: two songs people already knew turned out to be chapters.

The third single, out alongside the announcement, is Fly (Someone You Love), featuring the rapper SALIMATA. It sits on a mid-tempo groove and stays on the subject the other two singles have been circling, which is what it feels like when something casual starts asking to be something else. Wrice sings the hook as a question about her own nerve, "Got me thinking I could fly, I could be someone you love," and SALIMATA's verse answers with the same uncertainty from the other side, wondering whether the two of them are lovers or friends and refusing to play pretend about it.

The album title is personal rather than conceptual. Machiko is Wrice's middle name, and SoulBounce notes that it means city girl in Japanese, which the cover leans into with an image of her dressed for a night out. For a singer who has spent a decade being described as a throwback, naming the record after herself is a reasonable way of closing that conversation.

What has not been published is the running order. The tracklist is still unrevealed with under three weeks to go, though the album is already up for pre-save and pre-add across digital platforms.

Nine October is turning into a busy Friday in the genre. Dawn Richard has Creole Culture set for the same day, which puts two independent-minded R&B records into the same release week, and the date now sits on the release calendar with the rest of the autumn rnb-soul schedule, a season that has already produced Jacquees returning with Mood 2.

The five-year gap between albums is the context the announcement does not mention. Wrice has kept a steady presence through features and one-off singles across that stretch, and Machiko is the first time since her debut that she has asked anyone to sit with a full record.