Thursday, July 11, 2013

She She She Shine On

Laura Mvula produced the first proper "Glastonbury moment" of 2013 when she segued from her album track I Can't Make You Love Me into a sun-drenched cover of Bob Marley's One Love.

"That’s the clever idea of my musical director Troy Miler," she told me afterwards, "whose last appearance here at Glastonbury was with Amy Winehouse, so he knows what he’s talking about."

Mvula clearly surrounds herself with talented people - her manager is the man who discovered Shola Ama on a train platform in Hammersmith, and she co-wrote her album with Steve Brown, who's played with and produced music for Elton John, The Sex Pistols and George Michael. YouTube doesn't say who directed the video for the singer's latest single, She, but they're obviously pretty accomplished, too.

Laura Mvula - She

That's not to take anything away from Mvula herself - her music is singularly original, incorporating elements of soul, spirituals, R&B, pop and chamber music to produce something instantly familiar, but totally unrecognisable. Not for nothing did NPR describe her album as "songs that sound like the whole world at once". I'd say she's a shoo-in for the Mercury shortlist later this year.

PS: Is it just me, or did you come away from that video singing The Circle Of Life?

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