Trigwell is from Leeds and started off as a busker; then she found YouTube and racked up 100m views online for cover versions of popular tunes, as well as two number one singles in Laos and Vietnam for a song of her own.
We read an interview with her in which she cites Phil Collins as an influence and she’s a bit Phil, on one of his later career albums that are admirably well played and constructed but contain few memorable tunes. This is a bit the same: it’s all pleasantly mid-tempo and makes the right noises in the right places but doesn’t catch fire. There’s a difference between having a nice voice and racking up mega-figures with good covers, and writing your own material and making a success of it. Ask Sandi Thom.
Leaving aside our cynicism over YouTube stars who meet reality when they start touring, on the plus side, some songs are decent enough, such as Another Beautiful Mistake, and Play It Again has the sound of a song you’d hear played on Spanish radio on holiday; not being memorable is not the same as not having commercial appeal or sounding better after a cold beer.
Her voice reminds us of Kate Rusby in places, and Taboo is a bit Kate Bush, and it’s more interesting than most beat-generated bland chart hits. All in all: a decent debut for fans of commercial pop, Phil Collins and Dido.
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