After finding herself catapulted into the mainstream media in 2017, with her debut track ‘Finders Keepers’ which peaked at number 8 on the UK chart, her full debut album followed in 2019 and she has grown in confidence ever since. 

It’s evident that Mabel, (real name Mabel Alabama-Pearl McVey) is a talented musician, she has it in her blood! The UK based artist was born in Spain and it’s fair to say she was born to some pretty talented musician parents; Neneh Cherry and Cameron McVey. Once noticed it didn’t take long before she started to flourish as a Pop/R&B artist. Her highest release to-date reached number 3 in the UK charts, and she hopes that ‘Boyfriend’ challenges that position. 

With a sassy beat to bring you in and a choreographed video to accompany the track, ‘Boyfriend’ is from the outset polished. The song, as you would expect, is about the need to find a boyfriend and it goes on to describe the type of man that Mabel might be after. The use of a straightforward mix with a hip-hop enthused vocal line, that floats into pop and also has elements of a latin feel too is very effective. The sound has energy and a catchy focus that runs effortlessly through all the sections of the song. The effects on Mabel’s vocals have a little edge to make it stand out in the mix. With some very subtle changes in instrumentation, complexity of vocal backing and overdubbing, this song, whilst it has repetitive phrases, takes the music to different forms to divide and break down each separate section of the track. 

‘Boyfriend’ will certainly be a contender to be one of Mabel’s tracks to hit the top. It is hard to say if it will be or not, there are a lot of great songs at the moment, but the creation and form of this release certainly make it a possibility.

 Pop    R&B 

Author: Phil Arnold

Phil Arnold is a musician, producer and music reviewer from Devon, in the South West of England. Whilst not writing music reviews, Phil also writes and records under the name of Ugbrooke.