There's been in a wonderful development in the alt pop scene over the past decade, towards complex musicality, rich, layered vocals and unexpected genre crossover. I've written previously about my appreciation for the likes of Hozier, James Blake, Lorde, Halsey, Alice Jemima and Emma Louise. However, full disclosure, there was a time during my teenage years when I would listen exclusively to male vocalists. I'm going to go ahead and blame the patriarchy for this. Post teens, however, I was won over by the powerful female forces in the international music industry. Starting with Adele, I slowly figured out that girls in the music industry were not limited to radio friendly pop hits, but that they were responsible for a large portion of the beauty I had already fallen for. With the arrival of Regina Spektor, Ingrid Michaelson and the Staves came a fascination with quality female-lead bands and solo acts, followed by the discovery of innovative musicians such as Lorde, London Grammar and Feist. As a vocalist myself, I am drawn to strong and interesting singers and I have since discovered a huge variety of lovely acts that tick all the boxes. One of them, perhaps the most recent, is Låpsley.
Låpsley's vocal is equal parts rich, soulful and accessible. Her music is a combination of on trend pop elements and easy listening, atmospheric jazz. It's a spacey, layered soundscape juxtaposed against against the warmth of Låpsley's gentle and mature vocal style. It follows that Låpsley cannote asily be put in a box. To add to the unique wuality of her music, Låpsley presents us with Operator, a few songs into her debut album, Long Way Home. Operator is a fresh interpretation of the well-known and loved Motown style.Adjectives that come to mind while I listen to Låpsley's debut offering seem to contradict each other. It is both interesting and engaging to listen to whilst falling comfortably into the category of easy listening. It is both cool and aloof and wonderfully warm. It combines live and electronic instrumentation. It plays around with interesting vocal edits and incorporates live music. It's wonderful and you should listen to it.
