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Josh Levi VibeZ

Josh Levi has been on television since he was a child and is only now getting heard properly. Eleven tracks of a singer with more range than his story suggests.

From reality TV to real records

Josh Levi is a Houston-born singer who first appeared publicly as a contestant on The X Factor in the United States, and then as a member of the group IM5. That is a difficult origin to escape — child-performer credits tend to follow an artist around — and his subsequent solo work has been a sustained, largely successful argument that he should be taken seriously as an R&B singer.

The evidence is in the vocals. Levi has an unusually agile falsetto and a taste for complex background stacking, and his records lean toward the atmospheric, harmonically rich end of contemporary R&B rather than chasing radio.

What to listen for

"DON'T THEY" in the remix with Normani is the highest-profile track here and the best showcase — two singers with similar tonal qualities trading lines. "SOMETHING MORE" and "VICES" are the strongest solo cuts, both built on the tension between a soft lead and a fairly hard-edged beat.

"What's The Use" comes from the Insecure soundtrack via Raedio, Issa Rae's music company — and that placement is worth noting. Insecure's music supervision was one of the most effective artist-discovery engines of its era, and a placement there was a genuine career marker.

"HEAVEN," "NASA" and "HOLD ON" fill out the picture of his own writing. "BIRTHDAY DANCE" is the loosest thing here.

The playlist then does something interesting: it ends with two tracks that are not his at all. "Insane" — Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper, Kamasi Washington and Ant Clemons, effectively the Dinner Party supergroup — and Kem with Toni Braxton on "Live Out Your Love." Read as context rather than filler, they place Levi in a lineage he is clearly reaching for.

Go deeper

For singers working the same territory, Xavier Omär, Brandon Banks and Giveon are the useful comparisons, and Normani's solo work is worth following independently — her Dopamine arrived after a long, difficult wait.

The Dinner Party project (Terrace Martin, Glasper, Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder) is one of the best things in modern jazz-adjacent soul, and the self-titled album is short and perfect.

And if the Insecure connection interests you, the show's soundtrack albums are among the best curated compilations of the last decade.

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