Despite being in the BBC’s Sound of 2016 poll, there’s something quite mid-00s about 22-year-old Izzy Bizu and her jazz-inflected pop. There are moments on her debut album that recall Amy Winehouse’s Frank with the edges smoothed out (Lost Paradise in particular), while the retro stylings of Adam & Eve sounds like a more relaxed Duffy. Mad Behaviour’s broad, sweeping emotion, meanwhile, would have nestled perfectly on the Bridget Jones soundtrack. Thankfully, the songs are often strong enough to withhold familiarity, especially the lovely summery skip of White Tiger, the Motownesque stomp of Give Me Love and the sumptuous melancholia of Circles. It’s a promising debut, marred only by a slight lack of identity.
