When the Los Angeles-based brothers Andrew and Daniel Aged first started making chill R&B together, they went by the name Teen Inc., then simply inc., and finally inc. no world. It’s not unusual for a band to change its name as its aesthetic evolves, but it’s interesting to note that only two albums and two EPs into their career, the Ageds have so frequently felt the need to rebrand. While their newest release, the five-song EP Living, fits comfortably into their discography of slinky slow jams, a sense of self-doubt is threaded throughout. It probably doesn’t help that we are currently in the midst of a pop-R&B boom to rival that of the mid-1990s, making it all the more difficult for groups like inc. no world to carve out their own niche. After building upon their sound with last year’s solid As Light as Light, Living ends up tempering that momentum with tracks that sometimes verge upon the monotone.
