The O’My’s Tomorrow is a low-stakes neo-soul album rife with tracks that don’t snap or pop, but instead warmly simmer and swirl around your brain. It’s the mark of a duo that have a crystal-clear idea of the music they want to make. This is ear-pleasing music – the soundtrack to a rainy Chicago day.

The O’My’s have been around for a while, and gone through quite a few different members, but they’re currently comprised of Chicagoans Maceo Haymes and Nick Hennessey. Tomorrow is a collaborative effort through and through, featuring Chicago music stalwarts such as Chance The Rapper, Peter CottonTale, Nico Segal and Saba. It’s no surprise, then, that it  feels remarkably like the fantastic 2015 album Surf by Donnie Trumpet (now Nico Segal) and the Social Experiment. Both records are lush and obsessed with carefully-orchestrated production. They’d both sound great live.

Tomorrow is the kind of cohesive effort that you would expect from two musicians with percussionist backgrounds. Skittering drums and soft, shallow pianos characterise the record. Haymes sings throughout, but it’s used more as an instrument than a real voice. His vocals are often muffled, as if he’s whispering through a half-broken megaphone. There aren’t any vividly memorable lines on this record, but that’s part of the design. These tracks are made to float by in a soothing way. Opener ‘Starship’ is a startling soul-pop intro, taking its time to get going, before a fading electric guitar peppers the back-end of the track. Tomorrow never really leaves that headspace.

That approach is largely a positive. It makes the album perfect for a car ride, or on speakers at an especially fancy party where you’re trying not to disappoint your parents with your love for XXXTentacion. These tracks bleed into each other. Its best moments are when songs slowly creep to heart-warming climaxes. ‘Niña Fresca’ starts off with a short female vocal loop and some snapping fingers, by the end it features trumpets, thumping drums and beautifully plinking keys before Haymes whispers in the background “tryna figure out the picture, baby/I’ve been down and out without you, baby”. In another highlight, ‘Afraid’ explodes in the back-half in a welcome unrestrained moment on the record.

And much like on Surf, Tomorrow is surprisingly competent at pairing jazzy, neo-soul production with straight rapping. Two of hip-hop’s best current writers, Chance The Rapper and Saba, feature on separate tracks and both mark highlights off the record. Neither are at their best here, but both are so at home on their hometown jazz production that they make it feel unsurprisingly natural. Their verses also add a little sharpness to an album that can sometimes feel a bit too blurry and lacking edge. The O’My’s would do well to keep looking to collaborate with rappers – instead of feeling artificially melded, these collaborations flow organically.

There’s little to complain about on Tomorrow. Is it as good as Surf? Probably not. That record had more ambition and drew every ounce of creativity out of its collaborative spirit. But this is a breezy, 33-minute album exquisitely produced and beautifully orchestrated. Perhaps with a few more risks they might make that record. We’ll save that for another rainy Chicago day.

7.0