Elviin - In Colour
South London songsmith Elviin makes bright and breezy pop look like the easiest thing in the world to create. A sad fact for many artists, however, is that it really isn't straightforward in the slightest.
The temptation with pop is to go overboard with hooks, bells and whistles, more often than not resulting in a hideously infectious tune that fails to move the listener to anything other than a nervous breakdown.
In Colour opens with a playful piano melody that gradually builds with the addition of a hot summer beat and a sleepy choral backing, making it the next in a slew of great summer songs for 2009.
Sugar sweet vocals and ear-pleasing falsetto see Elviin's melifluous croon glide over the bouncing, swaggering rhythm with efortless finesse and complex meldoies prevent the tune becoming tiresome too quickly.
Perhaps not to everyone's taste, this one should be filed alongside Lily Allen but certainly not lumped into the same shallow category; it's a cheery pop delight with attitude and a heart.
Rating: 4/5
FemaleFirst - Anthony Hill