“Suffering is promised to us all, but so is joy. You have to find peace in that duality,” says Yaya Bey, who commits to life’s delight — humor, love, the power of human movement and connection — even if she has to do it afraid. With her new album, which follows a run of critically acclaimed releases and marks her debut on art-forward indie label drink sum wtr, the Queens, New York singer-songwriter thrives across uplifting, effervescent material. A rejection of past narratives projected onto her, do it afraid finds Bey reclaiming her story with resolutely fun, full-hearted, and nuanced songs that pull from R&B, hip-hop, jazz, soul, and dance music, including the soca stylings of her family’s Bajan roots. do it afraid celebrates all sides of Yaya as part of a collective lifeforce that doesn’t subscribe to fear but to the moments that move us.

“I wrote this album from the most vulnerable parts of me, which contrary to what many people want to believe about me, is not my trauma but my desire to love, to feel joy…to be free. In this life, pain and loss are promised to us; it takes real courage to dance in the face of the inevitable. To savor the now and make it beautiful. I come from a people who are masters at this. Onlookers like to make a spectacle of us. Rob of us of our nuance. But the truth is we are brave, resilient and joyful. I made this album for us. May we continue to do it afraid.”

On the surface, Bathe’s dreamy R&B is as inviting as the waves lapping the shoreline at a five-star tropical resort. But listen closer, and there are shadowy depths within.

Singer-songwriter Devin Hobdy and guitarist-producer Corey Smith-West formed Bathe eight years ago while attending the University of Pennsylvania. Since then, the Brooklyn-based duo has crafted music that soothes like a balm for modern anxieties—lush, melodic, and unflinchingly honest. Their 2021 debut album Bicoastal has drawn in over 30 million Spotify streams, thanks to its easy grooves and emotional weight.

Their latest album, Inside Voice(s)—released in full in March 2025 after an initial Side A drop in late 2024—doubles down on that contrast. Serene chords and smooth melodies meet themes of familial grief, millennial disillusionment, and the quiet ache of longing. With collaborators like Jake Aron (L’Rain), Joe Visciano (SZA, Kendrick Lamar), and Joe LaPorta (David Bowie, Beach House), Bathe joins a lineage of albums like What’s Going On and Channel Orange: lush and sorrowful, grounded in today’s instability.

“Most of the songs on this album deal in that dissonance of being split between where you are and where you want to be,” says Smith-West. Hobdy adds, “That longing might never go away—and that’s as OK as it can be.”

First single “Avalon” captures that tension perfectly, referencing both the sensible Toyota sedan and the mythical paradise. Over dreamy guitars and boom-bap drums, Hobdy sings about unemployment and escapism with a featherlight touch. Elsewhere, the duo memorializes loved ones lost—on the aching closer “Bbyboy,” the ethereal “Hosannas,” and the dub-inspired “Heaven.” Their family’s influence runs through the album, from voicemail samples to inherited jazz chops and reggae riffs.

The album’s two sides reflect the duo’s artistic duality: Side A is warmer and melodic, Side B more stripped-down and experimental. It’s a snapshot of where Bathe’s been—and all the directions they could go next.

For Bathe, the music is as much about escape as it is confrontation. Inside Voice(s) invites you to sink in and feel something real. Just don’t forget about the undertow.