ED SHEERAN
NO.6 COLLABORATIONS PROJECT
★★★★★
SHEERAN’S fourth album is a showcase of the best in current pop, rock, grime and hip-hop, blending them all with his signature singer-songwriter (and part-time rapper) style.
Despite what critics may think of the newlywed singer, his versatility knows no bounds as he straddles soulful slow jams with the likes of Yebba and Ella Mai, grime with Stormzy, hip-hop with Eminem and 50 Cent and rock with Bruno Mars and Chris Stapleton.
No track is bad, but there are definite stand-outs, including the collab with Mars and Stapleton. Sheeran should definitely consider focusing on more rock-tinged music going forward.
FREYA RIDINGS
FREYA RIDINGS
★★★★★
HER 2018 single Lost Without You put her on the music map. And one thing is for certain: Freya Ridings isn’t going anywhere but to the top of the charts. Her debut, self-titled album is packed with one hit-worthy song after another.
Castles is already proving to be a favourite and there are plenty of impressive songs left to feast on including Holy Water, Ultraviolet and Still Have You. With a Glastonbury performance under her belt already, expect to hear a lot more from Ridings.
Her songs have the emotional depth of a soul well beyond her 25 years and it’s this defining quality that makes this one massively impressive debut album.
ADA LEA
WHAT WE SAY IN PRIVATE
★★★★★
FOLLOWING the end of a recent romantic relationship, Ada Lea decided to keep a diary for 180 days. She had to act.
She would stay up, sometimes for days at a time, painting and writing madly.
The Montreal-based musician and artist, wanted to mark her route to independence but inadvertently created the foundations of her debut album.
It tackles heartbreak, but more than that it nails the messy, complicated reality of extracting oneself from another person. Her medium? Ageless glam rock, thrashing guitars and zeitgeist-y visuals. On all these tracks, Lea manages to combine heavy, dissonant guitars with a laid-back, slacker vibe. But the two worlds don’t clash, they congeal and harden into something strange and new.