Lapalux and Kerry Leatham just need to stop. I don’t know if I can handle the immense loneliness and beauty the producer and singer bring to the table when they collaborate. A lot of fuss has been made about race and R&B in recent days and if the genre is inherently black or not. Not being a part of the greater R&B community, I can’t really speak on the greater race/class/historical issues in play here, but it has to be said that much of the innovation within the genre has come from outside its traditional barriers. Immensely popular artists like The Weeknd and Jeremih sound like nothing that came before them and work with producers like Zodiac, Shlohmo and Mike Will who offer sound palates that are pretty much antithetical to what traditional R&B stands for. Even further out are guys like Holy Other and Tom Krell who have reduced R&B to an icicle of its former self. Lapalux’s best work comes out when he’s working with vocalists, specifically Leatham, and “Without You” is his most emotive, touching track to date. The version in the wholly unsettling video below is the radio edit, but you can buy the full length version, which also includes “Guuurl”, from iTunes,