Listen to this: Layla - Weightless

Music that plays with dynamics always get a big tick in the Discopop ledger of pop approval^TM, so London newcomer Layla is destined to get lots of ticks.

Taking her cue from the noir pop of Florence and Lorde, Layla makes the sort of songs that start with a whisper and ends with an elephant exploding the moon. She caught my attention this summer when her song Smokestacks was used to soundtrack the BBC's trailer for VERY IMPORTANT SHOUTY DRAMA series, Secrets.

Full of gothic choirs and huge, reverberating cymbals, it even managed to stand out amidst all the acting in the minute-long slot.

Smokestacks featured on a very good EP called Black Mud a couple of months ago. Since that came out, Layla has been to the US, where her parents renewed their marriage vows with an Elvis impersonator and she recorded a brand new batch of songs.

The result is the Weightless EP, whose lead track is getting lots of love on 6 Music and Radio 2 - and it's easy to see why: Weightless perfectly captures the moment two besotted teenagers stop bottling up their feelings and go for a full-on snog in the back of a car.

Pop cliché dominates the lyrics ("flying like cannonballs"? again?) so it's left to the music to really sell that sudden, uncontainable urge to grab someone by the lapels and suck their face off. And, boy, does it achieve that. Never has a string section sounded so tumescent.

You'll need a shower when it's all over.



If you liked that, you can pre-order the Weightless EP on this link and read a lovely interview with Layla on Ground Sounds.

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