79.5 revive 60s summer loving with sugar-sweet ‘Boy Don’t Be Afraid’

Meet 79.5: the New York­ers serv­ing old-school soul and R&B the way it’s meant to be: pip­ing hot and packed with mor­eish melodies.

Their lat­est sin­gle, ‘Boy Don’t Be Afraid’, is instant ear can­dy that sounds like it could have been torn from the cat­a­logue of Holland-Dozier-Holland.

Its heavy piano notes and light-foot­ed gui­tar rhythm have the bright air of ‘I’ll Be Around’ by The Spin­ners. Mean­while, the group’s three lead vocal­ists – Kate Mat­ti­son, Nya Park­er Brown and Piya Malik – parade through this lush melody with joy­ous energy.

If you’re famil­iar with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings or Lee Fields & the Expres­sions, you need to this in your life.

79.5’s debut album, Pre­dic­tions, is due lat­er this year on Big Crown Records.

Image: Sesse Lind