Between 70s funk and modern soul, Leon Thomas finds balance in PHOLKS

Last Friday, 24th, Leon Thomas — artist, singer, songwriter, producer, actor, voice actor, winner of Grammy of Best R&B Song 2024 and much more — released the EP PHOLKS (2025). There are seven tracks lasting around 22 minutes that deepen his foray between R&B, funk and psychedelic soul. The release follows their biggest and most praised album, MUTT (2024), and the deluxe edition released earlier this year.

Leon Thomas started early, doing the voice of Tyrone in Backyardigans (2004). Afterwards, he worked on major TV series Nickelodeon as iCarly (2007) and Brilliant Victoria (2010), and even in the play Broadway of The Lion King. As an adult, he focused on music: he released some works — such as the EP Genesis (2018) and the album Electric Dusk (2023). But it was when he signed the co-production of “Snooze”from the SZAthat global recognition has arrived, with the Grammy. He also participated in the production of “Burn”one of the only tracks that works in Vultures 1 (2024), by Kanye West.

Now, in PHOLKShis love for music and especially the genre is evident once again. He not only sings, but plays, produces and lives music like a living organism. According to the artist in a radio interview WEAA: “I’m giving a futuristic twist to my favorite eras of the 70s and 80s.”

Your newest project

As he himself said, the project draws from the funk of the 70s and 80s — a time when Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye and James Brown reigned — but with an extra touch, changes that only someone passionate and engaged could make.

The initial batch — of “Just How You Are” the “Baccarat” — contains the biggest strength of the EP. In “Just How You Are”the first track, Thomas opens with a disco beat, powerful synthesizers and a request for the other half of the relationship to surrender like him. Already in “My Muse”the old piano and funky bass sound like they were ripped from an 80s studio tape and transported to 2030.

In the third track, “5MoreMinutes”we see a Leon Thomas charismatic asking his driver to wait another five, 15, 25, 45 minutes while he makes out with a girl. The track features a guitar riff with the same amount of effects in his voice and is the highlight of the project. Further ahead, “Trapped” and “Baccarat” they play with introspection and risk: the first is raw, minimalist until the chorus, when it gains body and psychedelic concepts; the second, chaotic on purpose, with guitars and drums that sonically materialize the emotional confusion in which he finds himself.

And although the last two tracks, “Feel Alive” and “Lone Wolf”work well, they do not have the same impact. Collaboration with 4Batz It’s interesting — and even better than most of the tracks on his own album — but it serves more as a bridge than as a culmination.

Simple project: for good and for bad

Here, technique and sound mix with mastery. Thomas distributes timbres like few others: basses that vibrate like tension strings, voices that oscillate between soft and strident, arrangements that seem built for larger stages. However, despite the sophisticated production and care in sound finishing, PHOLKS it comes up against lyrics that are sometimes shallow, with verses less profound than its technical ambition — a limitation that, however, does not compromise the strength of the set.

Still, the EP has the exact measure of what it needs to be. A longer album would perhaps sound excessive; This short format perfectly fulfills its intended role. Leon Thomas delivers a cohesive, well-executed idea that excites and satisfies, but does not create any need for expansion. Different from MUTTwhich deserved a complement and found it in the deluxe, PHOLKS it’s a closed loop — a small but complete narrative, in which each track is a self-contained chapter.

Perhaps this brevity is what makes the project so effective. It ends by leaving the listener in harmony, not lack. Everything that Leon I wanted to express it is there. PHOLKS is a portrait of an artist who understands that sometimes the best way to show love for something is to know when to stop.

The future of R&B is in good hands

In the end, PHOLKS It is a work small in size, but large in purpose. Leon Thomas reaffirms that it is in a mature phase, in which the pleasure of creating outweighs the need to prove. He dominates the studio like few others and conveys a feeling of lightness that only artists in full control of their identity can achieve.

More than a simple EP, the project works as an exercise in style, a synthesis of everything that Thomas has been seeking in recent years — the balance between nostalgia and modernity, technique and emotion, ego and delivery. PHOLKS it’s the sound of someone who loves music and feels at home within it.

And with his consistent talent, creative vision and explicit love for music, Leon Thomas could easily dominate R&B in the coming years — no longer as a promise, but as a major name.

• Leon Thomas