(May 9, 2026) French producer Onra fuses audial and visual on his latest project, After Dark. Onra conceived the album as the soundtrack to an imagined film that takes place in the hours between sunset and sunrise.
The largely instrumental project has an intimacy that makes the listener picture someone driving through a vacant city street on their way to a yet to revealed destination. As I listened to the album, After Dark came across as more of a musical score rather than a soundtrack. Each track introduces a certain theme, plot device, or character.
So, when I heard “That Kind of Girl,” the track from After Dark featured in this First Listen, I pictured a guy on his way to meet a young lady after his friends gave him the lowdown. The expectation of this meeting comes through an arrangement that heightens the mystery with the atmospheric 1980s era synth funk that’s augmented with percussion and bass line. Onra completes the mystery with the only vocals heard in the song; “Everybody’s telling me/everybody’s telling me/You’re that kind of girl.”
What kind of girl is she exactly? We’ll have to wait for the movie to find out. Until then, listen to Onra’s “That Kind of Girl” here.
By Howard Dukes
