Rising star of homegrown gangsta-R&B or an Amy Winehouse copycat too far? You decide
*Hometown*: Brighton.
*The lineup*: Elli Ingram (vocals).
*The background*: Elli Ingram has been described as "Adele if she did hip hop", "Adele if she smoked weed" and "Adele with swag" by some of the half million or so people who viewed her version on YouTube of Kendrick Lamar's Poetic Justice (which came with a video directed, oddly enough, by the son of the KLF's Jimmy Cauty). We haven't personally checked her drug consumption but there is a narcotic allure to her music: it's slow, and if not fully stupefied or chopped and screwed, certainly there is a consistency of mood and tempo suggestive of someone who likes a drink and a puff.
More than Adele, it is Amy Winehouse who haunts every note of her languid, late-night supperclub soul and her every vocal inflection, and if she is to succeed it is the heavy burden of Amy's memory that she is either going to have to absorb or do something to shake off. She might even have to go a little further to find her own voice. Still, she's only 20, and she has already been touted in UK R&B circles, earning a Best Newcomer nomination at the MOBO Awards on the back of her 2013 debut EP Sober. She has toured with Chase and Status, joined them onstage at Glastonbury and sang on their track, Heaven Knows, giving it plenty of bombast and, well, (Shirley) Bassey, positing herself as a possible Bond theme singer in years to come as she held her own amid the metallic dubstep maelstrom.
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And now she's got her first official release after signing to Island, label home of - what was her name again? Ah yes, Ms Winehouse. So they miss her and want to replicate some of her tortured artistry. There isn't a law against it. Anyway, the latest EP - or "album-ette" as they're calling it - is titled the Doghouse and it features tracks such as When It Was Dark (the single accompanied by a video directed by Emil Nava, who has worked with Ed Sheeran, Tinie Tempah and Jessie J) and Gangsta Blues. Talk about nailing your colours (dark ones) to a particular mast. When It Was Dark itself opens with a hellfire preacher/Malcolm X snippet and swirls of organ and suggests that as much as teens Elli Ingram could appeal to fans of '60s and '70s soul, or even fans of the sort of hip hop that samples same. All Caught Up is mellifluous R&B that could play well on Jazz FM although by this point you might find yourself screaming at the radio, "Sing in your own voice, woman!" We'd say it was mannered but those mannerisms aren't even hers. C'Dawha ("I got you drinking way more than you ever should, I got you pushing deeper than you ever would") is twisted and trippily torpid, a drug or sex paean that cribs from the Weeknd's Noir&B.
Still, before you think she protests too much her bad-girl/sad-girl credentials, check out the previous Sober EP. It does the smoky jazzy languid thing while also incorporating captivating pop melodies, especially on the title track, which has a lustrous chorus that, were they to reissue it, would sound great on any FM station, let alone the Jazz one. Although radio programmers might baulk at the sentiments ("I let the drugs get too much, I let it take me too far") here and on other Sober tracks - which push the idea of Elli as edgy: "I'm not like most girls", "You're not into what I do, baby", "I'm hungover", "I know that it's bad for my throat" and so lewdly on. Then again, a few censorious bleeps might enhance her reputation as the swaggy 15-Rated Adele.
*The buzz*: "If there's one artist that we always get excited about, it has to be up and coming sensation, Elli Ingram."
*The truth*: Meet the new naughty (-ish) fatale femme of smoky, jazzy after-hours soul.
*Most likely to*: Be touted as the dog's bollocks.
*Least likely to*: End up in the doghouse.
*What to buy*: The Doghouse EP is out now on Island.
*File next to*: Amy Winehouse, Adele, Law, Duffy.
*Links*: elliingram.com.
Thursday's new band: Dub Thompson. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 hour ago.
*Hometown*: Brighton.
*The lineup*: Elli Ingram (vocals).
*The background*: Elli Ingram has been described as "Adele if she did hip hop", "Adele if she smoked weed" and "Adele with swag" by some of the half million or so people who viewed her version on YouTube of Kendrick Lamar's Poetic Justice (which came with a video directed, oddly enough, by the son of the KLF's Jimmy Cauty). We haven't personally checked her drug consumption but there is a narcotic allure to her music: it's slow, and if not fully stupefied or chopped and screwed, certainly there is a consistency of mood and tempo suggestive of someone who likes a drink and a puff.
More than Adele, it is Amy Winehouse who haunts every note of her languid, late-night supperclub soul and her every vocal inflection, and if she is to succeed it is the heavy burden of Amy's memory that she is either going to have to absorb or do something to shake off. She might even have to go a little further to find her own voice. Still, she's only 20, and she has already been touted in UK R&B circles, earning a Best Newcomer nomination at the MOBO Awards on the back of her 2013 debut EP Sober. She has toured with Chase and Status, joined them onstage at Glastonbury and sang on their track, Heaven Knows, giving it plenty of bombast and, well, (Shirley) Bassey, positing herself as a possible Bond theme singer in years to come as she held her own amid the metallic dubstep maelstrom.
Reading on mobile? Click here to listen
And now she's got her first official release after signing to Island, label home of - what was her name again? Ah yes, Ms Winehouse. So they miss her and want to replicate some of her tortured artistry. There isn't a law against it. Anyway, the latest EP - or "album-ette" as they're calling it - is titled the Doghouse and it features tracks such as When It Was Dark (the single accompanied by a video directed by Emil Nava, who has worked with Ed Sheeran, Tinie Tempah and Jessie J) and Gangsta Blues. Talk about nailing your colours (dark ones) to a particular mast. When It Was Dark itself opens with a hellfire preacher/Malcolm X snippet and swirls of organ and suggests that as much as teens Elli Ingram could appeal to fans of '60s and '70s soul, or even fans of the sort of hip hop that samples same. All Caught Up is mellifluous R&B that could play well on Jazz FM although by this point you might find yourself screaming at the radio, "Sing in your own voice, woman!" We'd say it was mannered but those mannerisms aren't even hers. C'Dawha ("I got you drinking way more than you ever should, I got you pushing deeper than you ever would") is twisted and trippily torpid, a drug or sex paean that cribs from the Weeknd's Noir&B.
Still, before you think she protests too much her bad-girl/sad-girl credentials, check out the previous Sober EP. It does the smoky jazzy languid thing while also incorporating captivating pop melodies, especially on the title track, which has a lustrous chorus that, were they to reissue it, would sound great on any FM station, let alone the Jazz one. Although radio programmers might baulk at the sentiments ("I let the drugs get too much, I let it take me too far") here and on other Sober tracks - which push the idea of Elli as edgy: "I'm not like most girls", "You're not into what I do, baby", "I'm hungover", "I know that it's bad for my throat" and so lewdly on. Then again, a few censorious bleeps might enhance her reputation as the swaggy 15-Rated Adele.
*The buzz*: "If there's one artist that we always get excited about, it has to be up and coming sensation, Elli Ingram."
*The truth*: Meet the new naughty (-ish) fatale femme of smoky, jazzy after-hours soul.
*Most likely to*: Be touted as the dog's bollocks.
*Least likely to*: End up in the doghouse.
*What to buy*: The Doghouse EP is out now on Island.
*File next to*: Amy Winehouse, Adele, Law, Duffy.
*Links*: elliingram.com.
Thursday's new band: Dub Thompson. Reported by guardian.co.uk 1 hour ago.