Canadian artist Alessia Cara achieved Topshop changing-room ubiquity last year with Here, a soulful slice of R&B celebrating being the introvert at a party. Agreeably sullen, it marked the 19-year-old out as a teen star uninterested in aping the forced enthusiasm of major-label pop. Cara’s outsider status is also evident on her debut album, Know-It-All, which functions both as soapbox and confessional booth. There are hints of Lorde in recent single Wild Things, a percussive, rallying cry against the studied coolness of the “in crowd” that shows off Cara’s vocal range, while Scars to Your Beautiful tells the story of a woman insecure in her looks who tries to “cut her woes away”. If only Know-It-All’s other component parts could match this sense of personality. Too often here Cara is let down by bland arrangements and underbaked melodies, from the Swift-by-numbers of opener Seventeen to the banal balladry of Stars. It’s a shame, because you sense that if Cara could find a way of making her music match her misfit appeal, she’d really be on to something.
