Tems Says Her Second Album Is Heading Toward Mellow, Melancholic R&B

Tems has offered an early but notably specific picture of her second album: a smoother, more melancholic project with a stronger R&B pull than a genre-bound formula. The singer described the music as “more R&B leaning,” comparing its flow to a river and characterizing the sound as smooth, mellow and lo-fi.

The comments establish a mood and a broad musical direction rather than a release plan. There is no title, track list or date attached to the album yet. That distinction matters: this is a creative preview, not confirmation that the record is complete or imminent. Still, Tems’ language suggests she is approaching the follow-up to Born in the Wild as a cohesive emotional space, with texture and atmosphere as important as any label applied to the songs.

A sound built around mood rather than a rigid category

“R&B-leaning” is a useful phrase precisely because it leaves room around the edges. Tems’ 2024 debut, Born in the Wild, spanned 18 tracks and moved among different approaches. “You in My Face” drew from R&B and soul, while “T-Unit” took a rap-leaning route. “Free Fall,” produced by P2J and featuring J. Cole, was another illustration that her work has not depended on staying inside one narrow lane.

Her description of the second album does not erase that history. Instead, it points to a potential center of gravity. A “mellow” record can mean restrained arrangements, patient rhythms and vocals given room to carry a song’s feeling. “Melancholic” signals an emotional tone, not necessarily a single lyrical subject. Meanwhile, “lo-fi” commonly refers to a deliberately unpolished or intimate sonic character—one that can foreground warmth, softness or the human grain of a recording rather than chasing a glossy, maximal finish.

None of those terms guarantees a particular tempo, set of instruments or songwriting structure. They are better read as clues about the atmosphere Tems wants to create. Her river comparison is similarly evocative rather than technical: the emphasis is on continuity, ease and motion. For listeners, the practical takeaway is not that every track will sound alike, but that the next album may favor a more unified, low-key emotional current.

Her process leaves room for instinct and revision

Tems also discussed a songwriting approach that does not rely on first setting lyrics down on paper. One example is “Raindance,” her collaboration with Dave. She said she recorded a 30-minute freestyle on her phone, then the team assembled the finished song from that session.

A freestyle in this setting should not be confused with a finished track recorded in one uninterrupted pass. The supplied example describes a long vocal capture that later became source material for the completed record. That process can preserve spontaneous melodies, phrases and emotional inflections, while editing and arrangement turn the raw session into a formal song. It is an approach that makes sense alongside Tems’ description of music that should feel smooth and flowing: an initial performance can provide the natural movement, and production can shape it afterward.

“Raindance” also shows that a phone recording can be a starting point for work that reaches a major audience. The song topped the U.K. Official Singles Chart in January and held the No. 1 position for two weeks. The achievement does not predict how Tems’ next album will perform, nor does it confirm that she will make every song in the same way. It does show that her process is not locked to a single traditional writing setup.

Related coverage includes Tems Points Her Second Album Toward Mellow, Melancholic R&B.

There is a revealing contrast in her catalog, too. Tems said she wrote “What You Need” seven years before it was released, during a breakup. The song eventually appeared on Love Is a Kingdom, a seven-track EP issued in November 2025 through RCA Records and Since ’93. Together, “Raindance” and “What You Need” describe two very different timelines: one can emerge from an extended improvisation and be constructed later, while another can wait years before finding its place on a project.

Why the EP matters between full-length albums

Love Is a Kingdom was not simply a stopgap release in the gap between albums. Tems handled nearly all of its writing, composition and production, making it a particularly useful reference point for anyone trying to understand the degree of control she maintains over her music. Its songs focused on love, self-worth and faith, subjects that fit naturally with the reflective, emotionally weighted language now being used for the second album.

That does not establish that the new LP will repeat the EP’s themes or production choices. It does, however, provide context for the kind of authorship behind the new description. Tems is not only selecting an R&B mood from the outside; the available evidence shows an artist deeply involved in how songs are written, composed and produced.

Her independence in the studio predates her larger breakthrough. While in college, Tems had difficulty finding producers willing to help her realize the music she wanted to make. She turned to online tutorials and learned to record and produce with Logic in her dorm room, before releasing “Mr Rebel” in 2018.

Logic is a digital audio workstation, often shortened to DAW: software used to record, arrange, edit and mix music. Learning a DAW can give an artist a direct way to turn ideas into recordings without waiting for access to another producer or a formal studio. In Tems’ case, that early self-teaching is relevant because it connects the present-day album tease to a longer pattern of self-direction.

Genre flexibility remains part of the point

Tems has previously rejected the idea that a genre should dictate an artist’s next move, saying that artists have the ability to define themselves and how they are viewed. That perspective gives helpful context to the current R&B description. It should be taken as a stated direction for this album, not a declaration that Tems has permanently narrowed her identity.

That nuance is especially useful in an era when a quick genre label can harden into an expectation before listeners have heard a record. R&B, soul, rap and lo-fi are all terms that can identify aspects of a song without fully accounting for its vocal delivery, songwriting, production choices or emotional purpose. Tems’ own catalog already demonstrates that those boundaries can be porous.

The most concrete expectation, then, is the one she supplied herself: a full-length project aiming for a mellow, melancholic and fluid feel. The mechanics behind prior songs suggest she may arrive there by following instinct first, then refining the material through production and assembly. For more music-focused pop-culture context, see this look at Mahershala Ali’s early rap performance experience.

What remains unknown

There are still major details Tems has not shared. The second album has no announced name or release date. No collaborators, producers, track count or individual songs have been confirmed in connection with the project. There is also no basis yet to say whether “Raindance”-style freestyle construction will define the album, whether material written years ago will appear on it, or how closely it will resemble Love Is a Kingdom.

For now, the clearest news is artistic rather than logistical. Tems is pointing listeners toward a record with an R&B-focused, low-lit sensibility—one described in terms of melancholy, smoothness and flow. Given her record of building songs through both long incubation and spontaneous capture, the path to that sound may be as flexible as the genre boundaries she has long resisted.