Last month, Rolling Stone ran an article entitled “Unplugged: Is the Guitar Solo Finished?” and outlined its case that the biggest hits of the past 30 years seem to all have guitar solos and these guitar gods may be on the endangered species list. Call it what you want, but the truth is there are still lots of amazing hits that actually don’t use computers to create strong, guitar-driven tunes.

With a single delicate touch, a piano comes to life, quietly at first, and slowly imparts to us a melancholic tone that will linger into the atmosphere as singer Alexis Keegan shapes it into a powerful, jazz-inspired anthem in “What Am I Supposed to Do,” her latest single. As we press on, a playful electric guitar peppers the melody in the keys with a striking confidence that will spread to the pendulous drum track and find its true commander in Keegan’s lush lyrical lashings from behind the microphone, which inarguably hold everything together in the song. “What Am I Supposed to Do” is in many respects a merger of old fashioned swing and new school tonality, mastered in high definition sound as to allow for every textured nuance in the music to receive the star-treatment in the grander scheme of things. It’s a fine addition to her growing discography of melodic gems, and a really intriguing song that I think would appeal to most anyone with a taste for highbrow R&B flavor.

Project Grand Slam’s latest album titled PGS 7 is a thrilling thirteen song studio release further cementing them as one of, regardless of genre, the best bands working today. It kicks off with the cut “Yeah Yeah”, a mainly instrumental track punctuated with a brief but very satisfying vocal from the outstanding Ziarra Washington. It has a great melody led by saxophone player Mario Castro, but other band members like guitarist Tristan Clark, percussionist Guillermo Barron Rios, drummer Joel E. Mateo, and bassist Robert Miller distinguish themselves as well. The album’s first single “Redemption Road” is much more of a traditional song than instrumental and Washington imbues the introspective lyrical content with a tremendous amount of soul, particularly hitting her stride during the chorus. It has a slightly more laid back feel compared to the opener, but this only illustrates how the band capably shifts gears while still retaining momentum.