Tag: Laura Mvula

New Music: House of EL

Intense, bold and just stunning.

House of EL

Barclaycard Mercury Prize 2013 finalists revealed

mercury awards

So the annual music orgy that is the Barclaycard Mercury Prize announced it’s shortlist today, with a mostly expected selection.

My favourite has to be Laura Mvula by a mile, although Disclosure and Rudimental are favourites from this year as well. But with this award, who knows…

The overall winner of the 2013 Prize will be announced at the Barclaycard Mercury Prize Awards Show at the Roundhouse on Wednesday 30 October 2013.

I brought three CD’s from HMV this weekend…

hmv store old

I know it sounds a bit old school to write about buying CD’s from a record shop, but whatever. One of my few pleasures is buying physical albums from HMV. It always makes me feel like a kid, and there’s something fun about looking forward to opening the case up.

Anyway, I brought myself three albums this weekend. Three of the most anticipated pop albums of the year, and they were all as good as I expected them to be. So here’s each one, with an album track that I particularly enjoyed. What a dorky post… Anyway, try and buy a CD every now and again. It would be a shame to see them go…

Laura Mvula – Sing To The Moon

laura mvula sing to the moon album

In theory, this is the sort of album that wouldn’t warrant more than one listen every now and again. But Laura Mvula’s album has been on repeat all over the weekend. The way she writes these songs… Sublime…

Woodkid – The Golden Age

woodkid golden age album

THE most anticipated album on my list this year for sure, I was ridiculously excited to finally hear this. Epic and orchestral and stunning.

Justin Timberlake – The 20/20 Experience

Music Review Justin Timberlake

Think what you like about Justin Timberlake but this guy always delivers slick production on his records. There’s a rumour he’s releasing a follow up album before the end of the year.

Laura Mvula fourth in BBC Sound of 2013

bbc sound of 2013

Laura Mvula

I had a feeling Laura Mvula (featured last October) would have come higher in this year’s BBC Sound of 2013, which makes the top three interesting- we’ll find out who’s come third tomorrow.

BBC Sound of 2013 longlist announced!

bbc sound of 2013
sound of 2013 longlist

The BBC has just released it’s Sound of 2013 list of artists. Over the years, this has proven to be one of the most accurate predictors of who’s likely to become a household name (in the UK at least) over the next twelve months, and it’s personally a very exciting thing to see. The list is compiled by the UK’s most influential music industry tastemakers, who were each asked to note their favourite emerging artists.

While I’m familiar with all the acts on these long lists by the time they are published, I do not necessarily agree with all the talent in them (that’s the great thing about music).

Still, every year I like to benchmark this blog against the list to see how many acts I’ve championed, and I’m chuffed to see that most of these artists have been featured on Alfitude over the past year or two (although some of these posts are already so old the sound clips may not be active any more):

Other acts on the longlist also include:

  • HAIM
  • Kodaline
  • Little Green Cars
  • Palma Violets
  • Peace
  • Savages

Overall, I think this year’s list covers a much more varied and promising selection of talent compared to 2012, and it’ll be interesting to see who wins. The top five acts will begin to be revealed during the week of 31st December 2012.

Until then, I haven’t made my mind up who will make the shortlist just yet- who would you like to see win?

New Music: Laura Mvula

Beautiful soul that encapsulates you and takes you to another world. Very excited about this one- it’s almost got a Disney vibe around it, only for grown ups. Check out here.