Leon Bridges issues part two of his Happiness Anytime EP series

Leon Bridges has released the second instalment of Happiness Anytime, the four-song EP that follows the one he put out last month and sets up an album due on September 25. SoulBounce's D-Money reported it on August 27. The rollout is unusual for him: three EPs rather than a single-and-wait campaign, each one giving away a quarter of the record.

The production is the reason the songs sound the way they do. J Lloyd and Lydia Kitto of Jungle are behind the album, and their fingerprints are all over Talk It Over, which pairs a bluesy guitar with frenetic drums and a steady bass line and lands somewhere wistful.

Talk It Over is also the first proper video of the campaign, and it goes further than expected. The clip is built on tight choreography, with Bridges dancing alongside the troupe rather than standing at the front of it, which is a departure for a singer better known for stillness.

The rest of the EP moves around. The title track is a groovy, jazzy piece about finding contentment in someone's company. All Day, All Night, the set's only feature, brings in Kitto for a bossa nova-influenced song built on her backing vocals. Fly Baby closes it out in the same easy register, with Bridges asking a former partner to take another chance.

Taken together, Part 1 and Part 2 give a clear read on where the album is going: warmer and more rhythmic than the retro soul he built his name on, and closer to Jungle's dance-adjacent instincts without abandoning his own voice.

The full record lands on Friday, September 25. Soul albums have been arriving thick this season, among them Steve Lacy's Oh Yeah? and Syd's third solo album Beard. Dates are tracked in the release calendar, with the rest on the rnb-soul hub.