Like Bloc Party singer Kele Okereke, Healy operates on full throttle at a curious intersection: the beleaguered pop philosopher issuing big proclamations with disarming optimism. In his grand themes and squeamish honesty, though, lies a more familiar kinship. Quiz Matty Healy on his musical influences and he’ll reel off lots of Nineties emo and Sixties soul icons.
Instead, her latest work is full of exhilaration. KTSE is a massive departure from Taylor’s 2014 radio single “Maybe”, and it’s nice to see that she hasn’t confined herself to her earlier pop sound. “3Way” oozes sexuality and centres on her syrupy vocals. The 27-year-old oscillates from funky lounge singer (“Gonna Love Me” and “Issues/Hold On”) to the dancefloor-ready “WTP”, and the sweet, gospel-infused tribute to her daughter Junie, “Never Would Have Made It”. At the core of the project is Taylor’s love of pleasing herself, her relationship with her husband, and being a mother. Keep That Same Energy is a pleasant surprise: embellished with producer Kanye West’s keen ear for samples, it blends Eighties nostalgia with fresh rap and R&B. Kim Kardashian West was right: the record is “soooo good”. “No Choir” is transparently self-deprecating Welch sings about the fear of lost inspiration as she leaves those wild years behind her and confesses, “I did it all for myself… but the loneliness never left me.” She drifts off on an airy “la da da” as the violins fade until the song is stripped bare, left with just her vocals, sounding lighter and freer than ever before. She seems to attribute much of this calmness to her new-found sobriety – she quit alcohol a few years ago and looks back on her twenties with a mix of fondness and regret. What she’s come to realise, on Florence + the Machine’s latest album High As Hope, is that her voice is just as powerful when she holds back.
With previous albums, Florence Welch would hammer her extraordinary voice down on the listener with unforgiving force. Few of Robyn’s imitators can alchemise sorrow into such genuinely golden ecstasy. With her first album in seven years, the Swedish singer delivers nine songs that glow and pulse with bittersweet sensuality, sung in a voice that sifts over the synths like icing sugar. Game changer: from Taylor Swift to Katy B, modern pop music owes a debt to RobynĮven in discarding such basic pop necessities as melody, Robyn has managed to create a masterpiece.