And so another year begins with the implication that in the months ahead, once again, the fairer sex will be flying the flag for Britain in representing the cream of the crop of our musical talent across the world.
At the end of last year it was announced that Emeli Sandé would be awarded the ‘Critics Choice’ prize at this year’s Brits Ceremony, an award which for the past five year has perhaps correctly represented the nature of British music in this last half a decade with its, so far, female only recipients. Of course in 2011 Adele ruled the roost here and overseas with the mammoth success of her second album 21, though her prize was given back in 2008 circa her debut 19.
Other highly successful recipients include Florence and the Machine in 2009 and Jessie J last year. Like her predecessor, Jessie J in 2011, it seems that notions of Sandé having a successful 2012 were mapped out months and months before the beginning of the year. For Sandé, this came in the form of her breakthrough hit, ‘Heaven.’ An instant dance classic, like Florence’s cover of ‘You Got The Love’ (originally by Candi Station) it’s an all-out summer anthem of pure 90’s-esque joy. An irresistible tune which first showed up in the UK top 10 back in August last year. It’s place at the top of ‘Our Version of Events’ track-list can’t help but immediately grab attention, unfortunately while this song begins Sandé’s debut at boiling point the rest of the record is reduced to a simmer.
The transition from ‘Heaven’ to ‘My Kind of Love’ is so drastic that those memories of summer from the first track fade instantly to melancholia. The hip-hop influenced percussion of ‘Where I sleep’ reminiscent of the break-beats of ‘Heaven’ also fails to lift the song from becoming just another soppy ballad. The soppiness continues as the album progresses, each song making it seem less likely that track 9 ‘Breaking the Law’ is going to be a cover of the metal classic by Judas Priest (actually this is a good thing.) There’s a rare scattering of some major piano chords in the intro to ‘Next to Me’ and it suddenly dawns that the biggest influence on Emeli’s music, rather than the stock cool/retro name-drops of Joni Mitchell and Nina Simone in the descriptions of her music by her publicists, is in fact Alicia Keys. And do we really need another Alicia Keys?
Emeli is no doubt talented, but this album seems to carry little personality after its opening. Jessie J’s ‘Price-Tag’ was an anthemic, quasi-reggae stomper that made singing about the recession feel good. Sande’s flat take on this? ‘money only lasts until it’s spent, but you. You last a lifetime.’ This particular song (Lifetime) however is a stand-out amongst this tapestry of mournfully bland love songs, it eventually appears near the end of the album. As a result the quality of songs amongst the tracklist is spiky.
Whilst The inclusion of her chart topping ‘Read All About It’ originally a collaboration with Professor Green, now a stripped down version titled ‘Read All About It (pt.III) is limp and cashing in on a hit. At times this album sounds just one hit and wonderful, rather than one hit wonder, for the most part however it is just ordinary. Emeli who dropped Adele as her first name is probably sick to the teeth already by the inevitable comparisons journalists will make to her and the overwhelming successes of Adele’s career. This assessment might however be a blessing in disguise. Just as Emeli’s first album has ‘Heaven’, Adele’s 19 had ‘Chasing Pavements’ and little else that made real waves. Maybe in a few years time, a la Adele, Emeli will release an album that justifies her talent and song-writing ability and her debut will re-enter the charts, contributing to making it Sandé’s year. This musical year however won’t be shaped by Emeli’s version of events.
6/10
Kieran Owen
