Cooly G - Playin Me

It's a little difficult to comment on a London-born solo female of dubstep and garage persuasions without referencing last year's breakthrough success Katy B, and with the same [Forename ending with Y] [Single letter surname] formula, Cooly G's surge to critical acclaim may owe a little to the genre's recent boom in mainstream spheres. It seems eons ago since the rise (and rather speedy) fall of careers such as Ms Dynamite and Craig David, and by contrast their sounds and innovations appear even more outdated. Such is the dynamic nature of music nowadays that genres are literally dying and rebirthing every month.

Semi-professional footballer Cooly G - real name Merissa Campbell - has already picked up a handful of praise with Guardian single of the week and Pitchfork best new music titles, but still seems to be lacking that one breakthrough hit to get her where she belongs. The music's certainly not as straightforwardly pop as the likes of Katy on a Mission or Perfect Stranger, but that's all immaterial. My opinion is gospel: Cooly G's an interesting new artist.

Album openers don't come more laidback than 'He Said I Said', a series of chambered echoes and deep, swelling synths punctuated by an unwavering jangle. "You've got me thinking 'bout you", Campbell intones in the background, with little insight as to what such thoughts entail - but the result is striking and engaging. She opts for a more dancehall atmosphere on 'What This World Needs Now', an incredibly 90s production in its minimalism, that boasts some fine rhythms. The idea of a party-starter only really materialises on 'Come Into My Room' with its rave genre piano keys and a more soulful, flirtatious vocal. It never quite becomes a floorfiller, but again demonstrates a love for dance and trip-hop music - two genres again revered by 'Landscapes', the album's drawn-out, blissful moment that coolly (lol x) sings "welcome to my world".

She turns though into more electronic and much more current directions: 'Good Times' is a distinctly 2012 track, following in the footsteps of the likes of Grimes, Purity Ring and Jessie Ware with its subtle, gentle production value and simplistic beat. Even reggae is drafted in on the bouncy 'Sunshine', a truly British garage fusion that has little going on, admittedly, but is pretty gorgeous regardless. Similarly laidback but a little less reggae is 'Trying', one of the album's more give or take moments whose absence I'm not entirely sure would be noticed - a fate that doesn't befall the title track, with its dark breakdown around halfway in and overall more urgent pace.

Risks are common on Playin Me, and one of the biggest a new artist can take is covering Coldplay. 'Trouble', fairly faithful to the original in terms of melody, is given a light dubtstep reworking and, as one of the band's less frustratingly omnipresent singles, does anything but offend. The beeps and whirrs get even quirkier in 'What Airtime', before 'It's Serious' does away with all notions of a quiet night in entirely. Featuring Karizma (not the Serbian rock band or Bulgarian pop duo, apparently), it's probably the album's only carefree dance track, and is undoubtedly effective in that respect. Towards the end the album tails off a little with darker sounds - 'Is It Gone' quite jungle in its leanings - before 'Up In My Head' rounds us off with a pretty little pop (by comparison, at least) tune.

A couple of things could be ironed out to make Cooly G a far more presentable and palatable musical experience: some of the instrumentals were a little too similar to each other, and lacked anything in the way of song structure. Sound-wise the album's faultless, though, and a nice chilled listen.

Rating: 7/10
Highlights: Landscapes, It's Serious, Come Into My Room, Sunshine, Playin Me
Avoid: Trying

Artwork Watch: Oooh, moody.
For fans of: Katy B, Blue Lines-era Massive Attack, Washed Out
Up next: Rita Ora