In Rotation: Alicia Creti

Montreal-raised Alicia Creti doesn’t just sing over Pop Wansel’s production on “No One’s Business”—she wrestles the heavy 90s bassline to the ground. You hear the piano-trained background immediately. Growing up in Canada, she used the keys to articulate what she couldn't say out loud, developing a vocal style shaped by emotional necessity rather than formal training. That translates perfectly to her current LA-based output. She knows exactly when to let a beat breathe and when to crowd the pocket. The vocal tone is heavy. A European blog recently threw out an Adele comparison, and while I usually roll my eyes at that specific crutch, they aren't completely wrong about the raw acoustic resonance. But Creti is pulling from a different lineage. On "No One’s Business," co-produced by Wansel and Andrew Shadrow, she climbs into a towering high register on the hook that feels strictly rooted in golden-era R&B. The track is built on a head-nodding groove, and her voice acts as the primary percussion. We saw flashes of this on her 2024 Self/Less EP. Then last October, she linked up with Elkan for "Merry Go Round," setting the stage for her new MINDFIELDS EP. The industry spends millions trying to manufacture vintage soul by throwing vinyl crackle plugins on algorithm-friendly pop singers. Creti bypasses all that nonsense because the texture is already in her vocal cords. She doesn't sing like someone trying to go viral. She sings like someone who has to get the story out. The infrastructure is catching up to the talent. Spotify just tapped "No One’s Business" for their Mood Ring playlist, and terrestrial stations like WRSV in North Carolina are already putting it in rotation. To anchor the moment, she just dropped the visual for the EP's centerpiece, "To Myself." The camera stays locked on her, and she holds the frame effortlessly. Check it out below.