Lianne La Havas
Is Your Love Big Enough?
(Warner Bros)
In the scramble to discover a new million-seller in the mould of Adele's 21, the music industry has been churning out countless coffee-table albums whose glossy sheen doesn't compensate for a singer's lack of substance and soul. More often than not, Later With Jools Holland is the TV window in which these luxury items are displayed. Last October, however, an unknown 22-year-old Londoner stepped bravely into Jools's studio space armed only with a microphone, a guitar and a hairdo heading off at an acute angle. Lianna La Havas was laidback, jazzy and gorgeously charismatic – even though that night she looked and sounded a bit like Corinne Bailey Rae doing Astrud Gilberto. The beats that now drop beneath her smoky voice on her debut LP are cool and precise, although for the most part the production is stripped back to let La Havas and her unlucky-in-love lyrics shine. She's not breaking new ground but, for one so young, it's a mature debut that sidesteps commercial cliches in favour of genuine talent.
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