Erin Rae
Can’t Cut Loose
Speaking as someone who owns a different pair of cowboy boots for every day of the week, my internal bias towards anything featuring a twangy guitar and the pure mountain vocal of a woman who’s definitely got a pet cat named after Dolly Parton should disqualify me from commenting on anything country. Yet here we are. This folksy ballad is so wholesome that Disney bluebirds should automatically appear to brush your hair every time it’s played. Unfeasibly lovely.
Roger Daltrey
As Long As I Have You
We can hear everyone under the age of 30 saying: “Who?” They’d be right, too, for it is indeed him from the Who. Mature listeners expecting a wild solo reinvention from Roger or, at the very least, an Ed Sheeran collaboration, will leave unsatisfied. As Long As I Have You is instead a perfectly safe cover of a 1964 R&B banger that will make your aunt who likes to go to rock’n’roll weekenders on the Norfolk coast highly frisky. Approach with extreme caution.
Amber Mark
Love Me Right
It’s hard to complain about everything sounding like Sade when we’re pretty sure that if heaven does exist, everything there definitely does sound like Sade. In the wake of Jessie Ware, Rhye and a host of other woozily soulful artists lifting the original Smooth Operator’s distinctive sound, comes New York’s Amber Mark. And like Queen Sade herself, she’s pretty damn good.
Girli
Play It Cool
There is a wondrous, sugar-coated Stephen Hawking mulitverse out there where mega-branches of Cyberdog have replaced all Tescos, new national treasures Jacqui and Carrie from Shampoo are all over Saturday night telly, and flamingo-haired Spice Grrrl Milly Toomey – AKA Girli – is prime minister. So please: let’s flag down the nearest unicorn-powered Uber, hijack the aux cord and go visit said universe, raging to this candy-punk kiss-off to crap boys all the way.
Thabo
Shallow Water
Not that you should ever pay attention to anything written in a press release, but the one accompanying Thabo’s new single feels the need to mention the fact he enjoys herbal tea and hugs. Usually such twee-ism would see this consigned to the “nope” pile, but if you look beyond the chamomile pyramids and clinginess, you’re greeted with a majestic tribute to the power of mother nature. Maybe he deserves that hug after all.
