Manchester-based singer-songwriter Lei Hope has returned with his soulful new tune, ‘Cranium’. It’s a track that touches on ideas of ambition and intimacy, with lyrics that focus on memorable metaphors surrounding success in love and music. His sound sits somewhere between R&B and indie, but he composes without the need to fit into genre conventions. “I feel like I’ve kept my past lyrical content quite PG so it was fun to subvert that and step outside expectations by being a bit explicit,” he explains. “The song is about romanticising longevity, both in my music career and also in intimacy.” Give his previous EP, Matrices, a spin if you haven’t already. -Dan Peeke