Latest Reviews

There’s a wide range of styles and influences at play on Lilly Ahlberg’ debut EP Call Me. Perhaps that’s not surprising given the young singer-songwriter’s nomadic life: she was born in Italy but also spent time living in the UK and Australia, though spent a good chunk of her young life in Sweden, growing up in the small town of Älmhult, the place that gave the world the flat-pack furniture behemoth IKEA.

You probably know Chilean-Norwegian singer-songwriter Nicolas Muñoz – otherwise known as Boy Pablo – from his 2017 single Everytime, the video for which went viral on YouTube, racking up millions of views within just weeks of being uploaded to the site thanks, in part, to a quirk of the website’s algorithm. Until that song dropped, Muñoz had enjoyed a growth in popularity in his homeland of Norway, gigging around his Bergen hometown and playing the Bergenfest festival. But Everytime sent Muñoz and his music global, and he’s building on that momentum with the release of his debut album Wachito Rico.

April Lawlor – known creatively just as April – began writing songs when she was only ten years old. By last year, she’d started posting her bedroom creations onto Soundcloud, and she quickly started winning fans. An early supporter was American indie-pop musician Alec Benjamin who invited her as support on to this European tour last year, leading to April playing a string of shows across the continent.

James Vincent McMorrow has crafted one hell of an infectious upbeat in his latest single ‘Gone.’ The Irish singer-songwriter that captured everyone’s heart with his rapturous cover of Chris Isaak’s ‘Wicked Game’ is dabbling with some unique R&B/pop sounds in the most recent piece.

Birdy laments her lost, wandering soul through a heartwrenching melody in her new single ‘Just Like a River Does’. As can be expected from any Birdy venture, the tune is rife with poignant piano chords and impassioned vocal work that will simultaneously soothe and sadden you.

With the Coronavirus pandemic resulting in widespread lockdown, Canadian singer-songwriter Donovan Woods holed up in a makeshift recording studio in his Toronto home and got to work on his seventh album, the aptly named Without People. It marked something of a change for Woods, whose blend of country-folk and sublime storytelling has garnered widespread critical acclaim, close to 300 million streams to date, and a JUNO Award for Contemporary Roots Album of the Year for his 2018 offering Both Ways.

Dutch DJ and producer Oliver Heldens founded his Heldeep Records label in 2015, and in the years since it has gained a reputation for giving young and talented, and more established producers a platform to let the world hear their sound. With his latest release though, Heldens didn’t feel it was quite right for Heldeep, and so he has founded a new label – OH2 Records – which has released the track.

Hailing from Sweden and otherwise known as Svea Virginia Kågemark, SVEA turned a lot of heads with her debut single Don’t Mind Me back in 2018, a smart, confident pop track with a message of empowerment. It marked her out as a rising star, and her follow up track Selfish only accelerated that reputation. Her 2019 single, Complicated, with Alexander Oscar has racked up millions of streams on Spotify.

Jade Bird’s latest single ‘Headstart’ explores the restlessness of an infatuation through a magical, saccharine melody. The English singer-songwriter doesn’t hesitate to lean on her vibrant, sweet-as-molasses voice that glides through the notes with ease. Her personality is beaming through the composition, and the instrumentation only heightens the spellbinding allure of Bird’s vocals.

Up and coming Moroccan Canadian singer / songwriter Faouzia has joined forces with American pop and RnB artists John Legend and Charlie Puth to create a stunning new track, “Minefields.” The single dropped this week and is already receiving rave reviews and the praise of fans everywhere.