It’s probably unnecessarily reductive and comparative to note that “Sweeter” represents a sign that Leon Bridges is about to move into the What’s Going On phase of his career. But that’s what I finding myself thinking as I listen to the new single, while finds the modern soul singer lamenting the lack of progress in the U.S. since the tumult of the civil rights movement on the nineteen-fifties and nineteen-sixties: “I thought we moved on from the darker days/ Did the words of the King disappear in the air/ Like a butterfly?” The song obviously couldn’t be more timely, but it’s not only its reflection of today’s headline that gives it power. It’s a beauty under any circumstances. The fact that the song’s message could have been pertinent at practically any point in the past fifty years, at least, makes it a heartbreaker.