Prince does not appear on this second album by Londoner Lianne La Havas, despite the purple one’s comeback gig in her living room last year. She does just fine without the distraction. Blood finds La Havas considering her Jamaican and Greek roots – the Blood of the title, a song called Green and Gold – and tackling romance from a wide array of approaches, from classy soul-jazz shimmers to the sulky electronic rock of Never Get Enough. The feather-light touch of La Havas’s voice can be deceptive; for all her apparent ease, there are sufficient quirks and depths to her writing, not least the scientific analogies on Wonderful (electricity) and Unstoppable (astrophysics).
