R&B duo THEY. - songwriter Drew Love and producer Dante Jones - have developed a smooth, future-facing sound for nearly a decade. In the early days, it was simple; two artists aligning on an appreciation for '90s R&B, new jack swing, and the height of soul-sampling hip-hop. Jones making beats and Love on the lines, a basic, balanced, and open-ended setup, free from major label expectations (which they'd feel on their 2017 breakout Nü Religion: Hyena) and high-profile collaborations (explored on 2018's Fireside, 2020's The Amanda Tape, and 2023's Nü Moon). They're proud of every stop along their story, while hindsight and a fresh perspective after signing to Secretly-affiliate label drink sum wtr have afforded them some distance to reflect on where THEY. Goes next. The answer is LOVE. JONES. Here the duo exudes a whole new energy by reasserting their artistry in it's most potent and pure form, just Love and Jones, making straight-fire, love-making music indebted to the golden neo-soul era that gave us the namesake 1997 film. "Forget the features, forget bringing in the big producers and writers. It's really just a return to our original dynamic," says Jones. Refined and reinvented, THEY. #have arrived at their boldest work, a stacked, high-energy collection celebrating Black art, culture, and "the intense feelings of Black love. "Love Jones, among other films, was a regular presence in the studio as the duo started shaping their next project. "I just keep movies on while we're working and Love Jones kind of sparked something and had me thinking about our very, very early days," says Jones, who grew up in Denver but spent a lot of time in Chicago with his family in the early to mid-2000s, around the same time Love moved from El Paso, Texas, to DC. "I think there's this weird parallel that was kind of happening in both of our lives around that period where we're both being immersed in completely different cultures from where we came from, like, real soulful black culture, cities that had a really rich black history. We didn't know each other, we're on opposite ends of the country, but we were both kind of going through these transformative times. " They both realized the Chicago-set film, released during the zenith of Black romances in cinema and pop culture, encompassed a vibe and aesthetic that became instructive for new material (and, of course, the title also merges their surnames; for years they'd considered it for a band name). Thinking back to the soul-spliced sound emanating from Chicago in the 2000s, Jones revamped his production process, experimenting with new systems and tools to create a palette of original samples and loops. THEY. #also took cues from the fan response after a run of live shows, bringing more active energy into recording, a grittier style of R&B in the lineage of 112, Jagged Edge, Jodeci, and The Dream. "We really just wanted it to feel like from the moment that you press play like you're entering into something new," says Jones. "When Drew gets on stage, he's pouring his heart out. It's not just trying to be cool or whatever, he's like 'I want everybody to feel me. I want people to feel the music,' and that's how we did it in the studio. You can feel it from the jump.