Lucky Daye (aka David Debrandon Brown) is everything I want out of a modern soul/R&B artist. His vocals are creamy and he can hit the falsetto notes (I’m lightly reminded of Curtis Mayfield). His music is imbued with throwback elements while remaining firmly planted in the present (see stripped-back PBR&B-flavored slow jam “Love You Too Much”), and it moves between sexy and romantic sounds and subject matter (“Real Games” is a hot head-bobber with a funky-wet bass groove that I’ve had on repeat—and it has a high-quality rap break that further highlights Brown’s talents).

Lucky Daye lands at the Crocodile on Sunday supporting debut full-length Painted. Two other rising talents warm the stage for him on his Painted Tour: Janelle Monae protege and pop-funk maker Josh Dean, who went from being Monae’s intern to getting signed by her Wondaland Records to writing on her GRAMMY-nominated album Dirty Computer and dropping his own Dear BlackSheepe EP; and New Orleans alt R&B artist, Ambre (who’s written for H.E.R.).

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Leilani was the managing editor at The Stranger beginning in January of 2017. In addition to her boring administrative duties, she sometimes got to write stuff. She’s also a Phishhead, and doesn’t...