Cloves - Frail Love

Being out of the loop for a lot of 2015 I’ve missed a lot of very good music. Now I’m in a pile up of gorgeous vocals, synths, FKA Twigs’ thrashing experimentalism and the cherry, or should that be the clove on top? 19 year old, Melbourne born, songstress Cloves (real name Kaity Dunstan) sits somewhere between the noir queen quirks of Lana Del Rey and the soulful serenades of Adele. Her debut single ‘Frail Love’ dropped on Soundcloud back in August and it’s breathtaking. Amidst the long flowing brunette locks and supermodel proportions, there’s a significant vocal force. Every lyric feels just as important and emotional as the last and Cloves performs atop sorrowful piano keys with a self assurance that sets her decades ahead of her actual experience.

New Single > Sinead Harnett > She Ain't Me

I'm a little ashamed of myself for not spotting the talents of London singer/songwriter Sinead Harnett sooner. She's been knocking around since 2013, releasing her own cuts like the gorgeous 'Got Me' and 'No Other Way', as well as making an appearance on Disclosure's Settle on the understated 'Boiling' and Rudimental's Home on the escalating 'Hide'.  She's been penned as the 'experimental Adele', but honestly I don't hear much vocal similarity and let's leave Adele as Adele. I hear echoes of Jessie Ware, the stripped and throbbing R&B inspired beats merged with a James Blake esque electronic experimentalism. 

Her voice hums with raw emotion and this is conveyed perfectly on new single 'She Ain't Me'. You'd  be forgiven for presuming this would be a run of the mill R&B assault on the upper echelons of the charts, but actually its reserved production and haunting vocal echo make this one of the most exciting tracks I've heard in 2015. I can only imagine when an album does surface that it will be glorious.

Rated: Ellie Goulding - Anything Could Happen

I wasn't hugely taken with Ellie Goulding's debut album Lights, even though it sported some rather fetching pop songs like 'Starry Eyed' and 'Guns and Horses'. Overall, I just couldn't get into it. Things sound a lot better with new single 'Anything Could Happen', which after just one listen I am completely obsessed with. It's hypnotic, sumptuous chill out pop at its best, with stunning vocals and unique production making it one of 2012's most exciting songs.

5/5

Rated Hafdis Huld - Synchronised Swimmers

The last artist to make me “omg” to myself was Sia Furler, back in 2008 when I first heard her second studio album ‘Some People Have Real Problems’. It was refreshing to find a singer who presents a collection of down tempo love songs and fills them till they overflow with passion and sincerity. Three years on and it’s happening to me again, this time with Icelandic star Hafdis Huld and her second studio release Synchronised Swimmers. This album will revolutionize your ideas of ‘chill-out’, ‘background’ and ‘cutesy’ music. Hafdis’ unique, soft tones are as easily consumed as cotton candy and her brand of female folk pop is brimming with charm.

Far from her days in electro-pop outfit GusGus, where she sounded a bit like Moloko star Roisin Murphy, Hafdis sings her newer material in such a relaxed manner that it tingles the spine. Opener ‘Action Man’ is, potentially, the cutest song you’ll ever have the pleasure of hearing. “Wishing, wishing and wishing away, by my window everyday, while he’s on a mission…” sings Hafdis on a track about a heroic lover and his absence from home. It’s the perfect introduction to an almost purely folk inspired album. ‘Oldest Friend’ continues the nostalgia theme that seems rife here, before the tempo picks up on lead single and Icelandic chart number one ‘Kongulo’ (Icelandic for Spider), which is about the human spider Alain Robert. This quirky source of musical inspiration is reminiscent of Icelandic superstar Bjork’s often odd-sounds and subject matter.

Synchronised Swimmers’ folk charm is continued with the minimalist ‘Boys & Perfume’ and on the mid-tempo title track, which is one of the album’s highlights. A darker moment is ‘I Almost Know a Criminal’, but this step down from chirpy nostalgic moments is minor and short lived, as ‘Robot Robot’ kicks in and Hafdis sings about building herself a lover. Album closer ‘Winter Sun’ is a gorgeous end to an intelligent, interesting and delightful album.

There’s no doubt in my mind that Hafdis Huld has big things coming her way on an international scale. With the recent rush of folk females (Ellie Goulding and Laura Marling are just two examples) on the commercial music scene, the door is already open for Hafdis to stick a toe over the threshold and bring some much-needed luminescence into our lives.