Every week at PopCrush, we’re putting the spotlight on one up-and-coming act you need to know about. Why? So you can get on board early before everyone else and their mother jumps on the bandwagon…and so you can be that one friend in the group who’s always like, “Um, actually, I prefer their earlier work.”

Holing up in a rural rental house sounds like the catalyst to a classic horror story. But it proved to be exactly what Wet, a New York-based minimalist pop trio, needed to complete Don't You, their forthcoming, full-length debut album. Now in the midst of the group's first headlining tour, vocalist Kelly Zutrau and multi-instrument artists Joe Valle and Marty Sulkow are eager to make their brand of softly-stirring melancholy stick.

The group, who met in 2007 as New York City college students, began recording as a collection in 2012, and saw early tracks like "Don't Wanna Be Your Girl" and "Dreams" pick up steam on SoundCloud. By the time "It's All in Vain" shot to No. 1 on Hype Machine in 2015, Wet had forged an identity: They're a mix of chary folk and R&B, over which Zutrau's voice — quiet but self-assured — keeps command. Still, the singer's the first to admit the group's material, a series of emotional unravels, can seem unsure for its nakedness.

"Cool and emotional are supposed to be separate, but that’s changing," she told The Fader. "People just want to feel like you’re giving them something. 'Here’s a part of me that’s a secret, I’m opening up to you.' That’s what everyone wants."

The group's latest, "All The Ways," plays accordingly, and registers like a tear-soaked page ripped from Zutrau's journal. "When you're here, take all of it / Cause when we're done there's nothing left / Haunting me, I hear the sound / I close my eyes, I push it down," she rues across the vocal layering that hallmarked '90s R&B-pop hits.

Pre-order Wet's Don't You (available January 29) if you like what you hear above and be sure to check the trio out on tour — they'll be on the road through February.

Who would you like to see featured in PopCrush Presents next? Tweet us at @popcrush with your recommendations using #PopCrushPresents!

See what these artists looked like when their first albums were released:

 

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