In his new single “Playing With Fire” and its companion music video, Desmond Myers isn’t concerning himself with fitting into a minimalistic model as it’s been set forth by his contemporaries in the American underground, but instead focusing on cultivating a crossover R&B sound that could be one of the sexiest I’ve heard all year long.

There’s simply nothing present in this song strong enough to break up the tension created by the relationship between a vocalist and the velvety musical backdrop he’s straddling, and while the sound is remarkably pressurized, it yields the most organic chills I’ve experienced from a new single this November. Myers goes toe to toe with a groove-driving bassline and emerges from the battle sounding like a more complete vocalist than he did beforehand, and whether you’ve heard his music prior to the release of “Playing With Fire” or not, something tells me that you’re going to be as intrigued by its provocative hook as I was. This is an artist growing into his sound exponentially this fall, and right now I would rank his new single as the best to have joined his discography thus far.

The rhythm grinds together the verses more than it seamlessly presses us from one lyric to the next, and although there’s a certain rigidity to the hesitant strut of the percussion here, it never translates as being robotic, cold or unfeeling in any fashion. I get the impression that offering as exposed a look to us as possible was something paramount to Myers when he was constructing the compositional foundations for this piece, and when looking at the music video for “Playing With Fire,” this feeling is only reinforced.

He’s got his heart on his sleeve not only through the poetic substance of this material but via the very means through which he delivers a melody to us. The harmonies in this single are telling of an emotional depth other artists, both mainstream and indie alike, would just as soon try to hide from when constructing something as equally balladic as it is bruising, and that’s enough to certify Myers’ artistic authenticity for me.

“Playing With Fire” clocks in at three minutes and change, and though it’s not likely to be the longest indie R&B slow jam you listen to this November, it’s a safe bet that its signature sway is one you won’t soon forget. There’s a lot for Desmond Myers to be proud of with regards to this performance, and as long as he’s able to continue developing at the same rate he has been so far, I don’t think his momentum as an artist is going to slow in the near future. He still has some ground to cover as a songwriter, but taking into account the creative trajectory his music is enjoying right now, I don’t think his fans need to worry about him hitting any sort of plateau at the moment. This is sweetly melodic music for grown-up R&B enthusiasts, and it’s absolutely one of my favorite new single/video combos of the season.

John McCall