Track Review: Tori Kelly, ‘Missin U’

After taking a couple of years off from mainstream pop to collect a pair of Grammy Awards and a handful of new Billboard chart achievements with her terrific gospel album Hiding Place, Tori Kelly has returned to the Top 40 battlefield. Armed with “missin u,” a solid acoustic pop-meets-garage tune, Tori stakes her claim for a return to pop prominence.

Paired with a new darker hair color and a relatively edgier wardrobe, the announcement of “Missin U” alluded to a sonic shift several times larger than what the song actually contains. Nonetheless, “Missin U” is a solid swing. Complete with a melody made of ear candy and a nifty sample of Craig David’s “Fill Me In,” “Missin U” finds Tori reminiscing about a past relationship and special moments the pair shared. “I miss that feelin' you would bring / I miss the way that you would make my sidekick bling and bling.” she croons in the song’s second verse.

“Missin U” begins in a lane of pop Tori has traversed multiple times over from Unbreakable Smile to Inspired By True Events. By the end of the first chorus, the song’s acoustic pop begins to fuse with elements of UK garage resulting in a sound that expands Tori’s sonic palette and carves a spot for her in the pop music landscape of 2023. “Missin U” wouldn’t sound out of place next to PinkPantheress and Ice Spice’s “Boy’s a Liar, Pt. 2” on a playlist, but the song still showcases Tori’s dynamic vocal range and agility — serving as a reminder to audiences that she can actually blow. Her belts cut through the fairly sparse production on the choruses, and her ad-libs double as perfectly placed bookends to her phrases and subtle nods to the fluttery melisma of mid-90s Mariah Carey.

Landing as her first release since signing to Epic Records, “Missin U” is a strong step forward for the next era of Tori Kelly.

Score: 70