Elli Ingram, “Poetic Justice”

Both the physical absence of Amy Winehouse and the artistic absence of Lauryn Hill feel tangible to me in the slouching-towards-new-soul of the current music scene, and here comes Elli Ingram, a 19-year-old from the UK, stepping neatly into the void. Her cover of Kendrick Lamar’s “Poetic Justice” is again not quite new (it came out earlier this year) but too good to miss; it’s frankly sexy, a little gritty, Adele on the streets.

And, if you’re feeling more slouchy than soulful on this good Friday, try on Andrew Cedermark’s “On Me,” a beautiful, droning deconstruction of Bill Withers’ classic, or PAPA’s tattered-Springsteen track “Young Rut.”