Late last year a single called ‘Yesterday’ by an Artist called Connie Constance popped up in a Spotify Release Radar playlist and I liked it and was intrigued by it. My first thought was that I couldn’t place what music might have influenced this combination of Synths and Soul. This week listening to Constance’s debut album “English Rose” it hit that it was Stevie Wonder that was the Artist ‘Yesterday’ was indirectly referencing. It’s this that really sums up Constance and her music, she’s really hard to pin down and reading her Artist bio it starts to make sense this is a person whose never fit in. Constance grew up in Watford a suburb of North London and pretty leafy, white middle class one at that. She stuck as a young mixed girl surrounded by white people.

This is a theme that continues throughout the album with neither Constance’s voice, lyrics nor the music styles and elements she’s using fitting nicely into easy categorization. Her voice can easily be compared to Otis Redding, Ari Up from The Slits and Bjork (though she doesn’t push her voice as far as a young Bjork did) and the music ranges from Neo Soul ballads to Indie Rock stomp via nods to contemporary dance music. Another helpfully reference point is Amy Winehouse due the F-Bombs, bitter songs about exes, unashamed use of her London accent and the fact that across the album she can sound both young and wise beyond her years. All-in-all though Connie Constance is Connie Constance a square peg in a round hole. Check out “English Rose” below and let me know what you think if the Comments below: