'Ello Lolo

Can a singer get away with scrapping everything and starting again? You'd think not - changing your name or your musical style means admitting you weren't being genuine in the first place. But it happens more often than you'd think.

In 2011, winsome singer Lizzie Grant entered her cocoon and emerged, fully formed, as doompop overlord Lana Del Rey; Dear Eskiimo got dumped by their label and came back as The Ting Tings; Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem achieved moderate success after they rechristened themselves Red Hot Chili Peppers (a massive mistake, if you ask me).

So it's not entirely bad news for Lolo - an exciting new urban artist, unless you happen to remember pop crooner Lauren Pritchard, whose 2010 album Wasted In Jackson scored positive press, but failed to leap of the shelves.

As a result, Lauren has started using her nickname (Lolo Pritch), giving her license to pursue a harder, crunchier sound than the watered-down Winehouse of her debut. You might have spotted her recently on Panic! At The Disco's Miss Jackson, but it's her new solo single you should really be listening to.

Year Round Summer Of Love crashes through your speakers like a dumper truck, as a madman pounds out chunky piano chords and Pritchard's voice is fed through a shredded loudspeaker. It sounds tremendous.

It's taken from Lolo's forthcoming debut album. She hasn't given it a name yet, but she says it'll sound like "Fiona Apple & Eminem's love child," - IE "loud, very loud". I'm ready and waiting.

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A meagre serving of humble pie

A few weeks ago, I called Lauren Pritchard's cover of TLC's Waterfalls "relentlessly horrible". It's a comment I continue to endorse but, as proof of the maxim that There Are No Good Artists, Just Good Songs, here is her new single, Not The Drinking, which is literally not shit.

Lauren Pritchard - Not The Drinking



Funny thing is, the whole Pritchard campaign has been based around her ever-so-earnest "real music" roots. Clearly, someone has decided she needs to be a little more approachable, hence the Feisty (dual meaning!) video. Will it work? Who knows.

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Sacrilige corner: Lauren Pritchard

On paper, Lauren Pritchard has a lot going for her. She's got a great voice; her single Painkillers has a chorus to die for; she starred opposite Glee's Lea Michele in the hit musical Spring Awakening; and she hasn't exactly been punched in the face by Captain Ugly.

But every time she pops up at festivals and radio sessions, she performs a relentlessly horrible cover version of TLC's Waterfalls. The original makes its heavy, socially-conscious message easier to swallow by coating it in a technicolor sugardrop of candy (with the most amazing elastic-band bassline you have ever heard).

Lauren ditches that approach and turns in a turgid sermon of earnest seriousface "sincerity". The whole thing is delivered in a faux-soulful croon that sounds like a miserable housewife scolding a wet dog.

And then she attempts the rap.

Lauren Pritchard - Waterfalls


Simply horrible.

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"I'm not dead tonight"

What could be better than coupling a beautiful summer groove with a morbid lyric about overdosing, suicide and indescribable pain?

Nothing, that's what.

Lauren Pritchard - Painkillers


Lauren Pritchard is a 22-year-old from Jackson, Tennessee, who says her songs are inspired by gospel, soul and... er, Billy Joel.

Tonally, her single reminds me of The Young Disciples' epic All I Have In Me, but with a 21st Century, Amy Winehouse spin.

Check out Lauren's MySpace for more music and a free remix of Painkillers (which could be terrible, I haven't bothered to listen to it. What do you want from me? Thorough research?)

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