Melvin Riley of Ready For The World releases a 19-track album called NO AI

Melvin Riley has called his new album NO AI, and the title is the argument. The lead vocalist, co-founder and principal songwriter of Ready For The World has put out a 19-track double album staked on organic instrumentation, live vocals and songs written by a person, at a moment when the industry is arguing about whether any of that is still required. YouKnowIGotSoul reported the release on August 27.

The record found an audience quickly. It has already broken into the top 10 of the iTunes R&B chart, which suggests the funk and traditional R&B Riley works in has held its position rather than aged out of it.

His own framing is simple enough. "This album is about bringing the heart back to music," he said, describing every note, lyric and melody as coming from a real place. The project is meant as a pushback rather than a nostalgia exercise.

The career behind it started in Flint, Michigan, in high school talent shows, and moved fast: Riley signed to MCA Records at 19. Ready For The World became big enough to tour internationally with Luther Vandross, and left behind Oh Sheila, Love You Down and Tonight. The group is among the few in chart history to hold four simultaneous number ones across four different Billboard charts.

That run left fingerprints on the singers who followed. Usher, Alicia Keys, Chris Brown, Jodeci, Trey Songz, Keith Sweat, Mint Condition, Troop and Twista have all cited Riley's approach to melody and emotional delivery, which is the lineage NO AI is defending.

The honours have started arriving too, including a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southern Soul Academy in Atlanta. Veteran soul artists releasing on their own terms has become a pattern this year, as with Jacquees returning to a mixtape a decade later and Gwen Dickey of Rose Royce sharing a new song. Releases are logged in the release calendar, with more on the rnb-soul hub.