Rumer. In Session.

She has the most beautiful voice since Karen Carpenter, warm, velvety, and full of heart.

Rumer, also known as Sarah Joyce, is the former south London barmaid who shocked the pop world with her astounding 2010 debut album Seasons Of My Soul.

Likened to the Carpenters and Carole King’s Tapestry, it went double platinum and spawned the relaxed yet compelling hit single Slow with its Bacharach-style chords.

Here, Rumer reimagines her finest work with the help of Redtenbacher’s Funkestra, breathing fresh feeling into songs like Aretha, her hymn to Aretha Franklin, the greatest of all the American gospel-schooled soul icons.

The new arrangements they came up with rehearsing for her one-off show at the O2 Indigo in December 2023 gave Sarah the inspiration for this collection.

Five numbers from her debut album get a soulful makeover including the gorgeous Saving Grace, Am I Forgiven and Take Me As I Am.

She has also re-arranged strong later songs like the jazzy dance track Dangerous from her third hit album, 2014’s In Colour, which tackles her feelings of trepidation about getting back into the music industry after being overwhelmed by her rapid rise.

‘Stop hanging around my window, stop hanging around my door/My heart has grown cold, and I could never be, what you want me to be,’ she sings.

We also get a fresh take on her 2012 cover of Richie Havens’s It Could Be The First Day, the new album’s dreamy opener, and The Fate Of Fireflies from her blissful 2020 Americana album Nashville Tears where she covered numbers penned by country songwriter Hugh Priestwood.

These eleven songs are a timely reminded of Rumer’s remarkable talents. Gorgeous melodies abound.

The album is released today on standard black, purple and mint green coloured vinyl as well as CD. 

bILK. Essex, Drugs And Rock And Roll.

This is glorious, an explosion of heartfelt high-energy rock with hip hop influences that channels The Streets and the Arctic Monkeys with a dollop of Oasis arrogance thrown in. Stand-outs include stomping opener RnR, the punchy rush of Slag (about singer Sol Abrahams's own sex-life) and the surging and infectious, semi-rapped Go. Band Life Blues is, unsurprisingly, bluesier and autobiographical. All in all the Essex trio's second album is vibrant proof that guitar rock isn’t dead.

The Weeknd. Hurry Up Tomorrow.

His coming movie of the same name is a musically-driven psychological thriller and tracks like the moody scene-setter Unprepared Certainty and opener Timeless (with Playboi Carti) will work better in that context. Dancing In The Flames is a little underwhelming but the songs are charged with Abel’s unmistakable haunting magic.

flipturn. Burnout Days.

The Florida-based quintet’s second album is a feast of dreamy indie-pop awash with revelations. On shimmering track Sunlight, singer Dillon Basse recalls driving his mum to rehab. Numbers like Rodeo Clown breeze along on an atmospheric tide as he confesses, ‘MDMA made me love you more – it’s all just a chemical feeling’.