Sunday, July 25, 2010

Not least @ Latitude - Part 3 - Clare Maguire

Her first single, Strangest Thing, is released shortly and it is now appearing like a rash all over BBC Radio 1. It is also available for free at http://www.claremaguire.co.uk, at least for the moment, and I suggest that you do listen.  I am already a fan; her first proper live performance was this time (14:45 UST+1) just eight days ago.  That was on the Lake Stage at Latitude 2010, yet again, and I was there...
She is in some ways both the best and worst kept secret of 2010 - at least in the domain of major labels - as she has been at the centre of a bidding war.  It is therefore perhaps time we were allowed to discover what all the fuss is about.

I'll tell you this, she can sing and then some but pop this is not. Certain comparisons have been made that might easily be seen as promotion that flatters to deceive. I feel only slightly risqué in suggesting that this time we, as music listeners, might actually be the butt of the joke and I think that Universal-Island have done right here.  In one sense it should pain me to write that but, if lessons are being learned and as an optimist, it gives me hope for the future.

What I strongly suspect is that, by this time next year, you would have heard of Clare Maguire anyway.

Note added September 22, 2010:
I'll have to revise the last sentence in the original post (above).  Clare Maguire is already blowing fuses big time on the radio in the UK now. The 'Breakage' remix of 'Ain't Nobody' is largely responsible for that...

Ain't Nobody - lyric - see here:
  
The album is released in the UK on February 28, 2011 and the track listing is as follows:
  
Light After Dark - Clare Maguire

1. Are You Ready?
2. The Shield and The Sword
3. The Last Dance
4. Break These Chains
5. The Happiest Pretenders
6. Sweet Lie
7. I Surrender
8. Bullet
9. You're Electric
10. Ain't Nobody
11. Light After Dark
12. This Is Not The End

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