Anna Prior
Thank You for Nothing
Metronomy’s metronome goes it alone and turns a phrase usually associated with EastEnders melodrama into a Robyn-worthy Balearic club kiss-off. Despite Anna sharing her litre of sangria and inviting someone to “climb into the caves of my heart”, the cad in question is awol. Rude! Handily also doubles as a summer jam aimed in the direction of a useless season that’s offered more in the way of pings than pingers.
Camila Cabello
Don’t Go Yet
Slickness and tidy longing fit poorly on Cabello, who often gets stuck playing those roles despite her biggest hit being the deliciously seamy Havana. Thankfully, album three starts by wiping off the sheen and properly sweating with this bawdy racket, electrified by a Cuban band. The album is inspired by food and family; Cabello’s thrillingly uninhibited vocal rasp hungers for a different style of relations.
Zuzu
My Old Life
Wreathed in her defiant scouse accent, the Liverpool songwriter’s fatally catchy indie-pop owes as much to Taylor Swift as it does the La’s. This gem, in which our heartbroken narrator boots her phone into the Mersey, is screaming out for a Britpop-era teen sitcom to soundtrack, or at least an EE ad sync so she can blag a replacement.
Sans Soucis
On Time for Her
Despite the punctual title, this blossoms like time-lapse footage of a chrysalis unfurling. Staccato vocal samples and a stilted drum beat mellow to a warm breeze, mirroring the Italian-Congolese artist’s lyrics about committing to doing right by herself. Of a piece with the low-key intimacy of Tirzah, Kwes and co, it’s gently affirming: more tender back rub than matey shoulder thump.
James Blake
Say What You Will
Do your worst, James Blake begs the haters on his comeback single – after all, it can’t be worse than being “ostracised” as a Grammy-winning producer beloved by Kanye West, Bon Iver, Dave, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Jay-Z and Rosalía, or being the “OK-looking” half of a glam Hollywood couple. I’d love to give him the satisfaction of comparing this risible wheedling to Alt-J, but I simply refuse!
