Ah, Amerie. Like Mya, the hometown songstress has remaining timeless in beauty and talent…and now she returns with a new double EP titled 4AM Mulholland / After 4AM, her first drop since 2016’s Drive (2009’s In Love In War is her last album).

Said Amerie to Billboard about the double release:

You recorded these projects while pregnant.
Everything on the album was recorded from when I didn’t know I was pregnant to eight, nine months [along]. “Not a Love Song” and “The Wall” were around then. I was doing little sexy rolls on those tracks. [Laughs] I record, engineer and do my own vocals and rough mixes. It was really creatively freeing.

How did the idea of a double album come about in 4AM Mulholland and After 4AM?
I love my projects to be very sonically cohesive. As I was recording, I wasn’t trying to limit myself in any way, I was feeling very, very creative — I had just came off of writing a new story and I wanted to go full-out into the recording process. I didn’t want the album to be a smorgasbord of sound, it needs to have a vibe and that’s why there’s two projects.

I’m hearing a lot of darker and moodier vibes from you on this project.
The funny thing to me, I’ve always felt like my music is dark — even when no one else thinks that. Like with “Why Don’t We Fall in Love,” I got on the video with the director and he’s like, “OK, I’m thinking summertime, you on a beach,” and I go, “OK, this is cool, but actually my initial thought was black, red and a highway.” No one else seems to feel that.

Stream below.