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Photo: Hendrik Schneider 

With summer just around the corner, many music enjoyers are scrambling to assemble what will serve as the foundation for their upcoming summertime rotations. They’re currently scraping through their last.fm data and carefully-curated playlists, fiending for the songs that will allow them to cultivate the perfect summer vibe. I can picture it now: a content sigh after throwing an entire Oklou record into the mix, a sly smirk as they choose whatever the most popular Lamp song is, and strategically put it first in line. “Nobody has taste like me,” they think, blissfully ignorant.

If you view playlist creation as a sport, you know it’s not enough to be a top performer; you have to be an apex predator. Your taste can’t just be good, it has to make everyone around you insecure, with every track making your friends consider deleting their Spotify more and more. If this sounds like you, then you know that no artist is as deserving of your eyes and ears this summer as Detroit’s Sam Austins.

Though Austins has spent much of his career being an ‘if you know you know’ artist beloved by fans and creatives alike, everything changed for him following his explosive viral hit “Seasons” last year. Ever since then, Austins has been delivering banger after banger, synthesizing pop, dance, and soul into a sound that is truly one of one with every release.

“A baby girl named Heaven” is no exception, where over an ambient yet energetic beat, Austins delivers some D1 yearning with his signature falsetto. Though it might be impossible to encapsulate his entire sound in just one sentence, his most recent release gives equal parts Blood Orange and Addison Rae, Toro Y Moi, and Ravyn Lenae, you get the picture. Perfect for those lamenting the great Frank Ocean drought of the 21st century, while still maintaining an appetite for refreshing music unburdened by genre or label.

“A baby girl named Heaven” is nothing if not the perfect song. Whether you anticipate your summer days to be filled with trips to the beach or bedrotting while meditating on yet another failed situationship, let Austins soundtrack your next season of self-discovery. That way, when your friends check out your Spotify activity they’ll steal your songs before reaching out and seeing if you’re ok.

Watch the “A baby girl named Heaven” video below: