Rose Elinor Dougall

Stellular

VERMILLION. CD/DL/LP

Ex-Pipette and Mark Ronson collaborator in bloom.

An on-the-radar chanteuse since her teens, Rose Elinor has certainly tried on a few mantles. This second solo album has a fabulous vibe of a young woman finally taking charge, defining what she now wants in life. Dougall co-wrote it with producer Oli Bayston, aka Boxed In, hence its ’80s-modernist sound, ’scaped with gleamingly elegant synths, and crisp post-punky beats. Colour Of Water opens with chiming guitars, then a joyful burst of keyboards – sonically maximalist pop, à la Heaven Or Las Vegas-era Cocteau Twins. Third up, the skipping, urgent title track pep-talks friends struggling in Austerity Britain; Take Yourself With You turns similar agonyaunting for a perma-partying husk into a languorous summer head-nodder; then All At Once satirises greed via seductive disco. There’s something very Style Council about Dougall’s breezy, hypermelodic positivity in such adversity. Like them, Stellular serves up a lovely, liberated tonic in dark times.