A God-awful Small Affair

I'll keep this brief because I'm just sulking over the absence of any Catch You or Get Over You pop majesty. This is the most tolerable bit of mediocrity one can expect from any popstar. I can't remember any of the songs but I think I recall them being 'quite nice'. Oh and don't think using Cyrillic fonts because your last album charted well in Russia has gone unnoticed, either, Sophie. Very canny. Rating: 5.5/10 Highlights: Young Blood; Birth of an Empire; Wrong Side of the Sun; Until the Stars Collide Avoid: The Deer and the Wolf; Interlude; 13 Little Dolls Artwork Watch: Is that a chalet? Up next: Bombay Bicycle Club

The last time I took a crack at reviewing someone whose debut LP was but the folky, quiet preamble to a stunning, electronica-infused sophomore it went and got my second ever 10/10 rating (and also contained a stand-out track called Glacier ), so it's looking at least a little tough for Mr. McMorrow to compare. His 2011 effort Early in the Morning was a real slow-burner with British fans, but he managed to make an impression on the singles chart with a charming cover of Steve Winwood's Higher Love (possibly because it was doing the rounds on The Voice at the time). Chunks of tracks have also been popping up on BBC trailers out of nowhere, so despite that #68 album chart slot he's not really been forgotten. Hopping up forty places three years later only proves that. It's an unnerving challenge though, going up against the likes of Passenger, Ed Sheeran, Bon Iver and James Arthur and all of those other chart-dominating gentlemen. What, exactly, raises him above th