Låpsley. Remember the name. It shouldn’t be too hard, given the number of publications queueing up to anoint the teenager as one to watch in 2015. The hype, so often unwelcome, is entirely justified. The ‘Understudy’ EP is a confident, emotionally intelligent bow from an artist that we’ll be hearing a lot more from.
Across four songs of minimalist, atmospheric pop, Låpsley, or Liverpool’s Holly Fletcher, shows lyrical insight and a flair for conjuring inky-black moods. The beats are sparse, overlaid with vocal samples and melodies that take left turns when expected to go right.
If the xx, James Blake, London Grammar or Lorde are easy touchstones, Låpsley makes light work of stepping from the shadow of her influences. She’s smart and dictates subtle nuances in her songs that make them fresh at first and repeatedly rewarding as they become more familiar.
While the sweeping Falling Short has garnered its share of accolades, it’s Brownlow, the second song here, that points to the further reaches of Låpsley’s promise. Its hooks are immediate, while the slow-burn synths and percussion can be peeled back layer by layer.
8896 is similarly intriguing and segues neatly into the late-night, almost morose, misery of Dancing, the song that perhaps displays Låpsley’s vocal range most succinctly. Given that we’re still disgracefully early in her career, it’s easy to gauge the reasons that XL took the plunge. ‘Understudy’ feels like the start of something worth checking up on with some regularity.
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