ALICE RUSSELL HEARTBREAKER

It seems that the British soul train keeps on going like the little engine that could. With Adele exploding on an international level, going on to record the track for Skyfall earlier this year, and with the previous and various successes of the late, great and interminably troubled Amy Winehouse, it's a kind of music that's obviously captured the hearts and minds of everybody all over the world, and - too lazy to list all the recent soul singers we can think of - we'll leave you to ruminate over the sometimes bombastic, sometimes unimaginably gentle, world of soul.

In the meantime, that tradition continues with the powerful voice of the beautiful Alice Russell. Finding inspiration in Gospel music and soul legends like Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder, she's been simultaneously making music and touring since the release of her debut album Under The Munka Moon in 2004. We've not heard of her, or even heard her music, before now but this first taster of what she has to offer sure is impressive and leaving us wanting to hear more.

Here's her latest single, chalked for release 19th November, 'Heartbreaker'. Enjoy.

The music of this track has some great quirks to it, with light keys and a twiddly guitar that is like a little cherry on top of the dark funk that is the base of the song. There's a sense loss in the music, by turns lazily sensual and decidedly frank, that provides the perfect cushion, or pedestal, for Alice Russell's stunning vocals. Able to switch between high notes with next to no volume, and loud, lung-bursting lamentations of her fate (the very essence of soul), her voice catapults feeling and emotion right into the air, it falling as downpours of sentiment that perfectly illustrate the song's title - modern soul with a strong heart.

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