Neu London Grammar

: London Grammar
Based: London
Listen: Soundcloud.com/Londongrammar
Similar to: Rhye, Sade

London Grammar is a project that’s existed for just under a couple of years. Small showcase gigs and the odd AOL session gave us glimpses of the trio, but most turning their heads at the band did so in response to one solitary, impressive opening gambit. ‘Hey Now’ could have been meticulously crafted day-by-day throughout the band’s initial existence - we wouldn’t be surprised - and it’s held the group’s work up as something to be consumed by throughout 2013.

‘Hey Now’’s muted guitar licks & sullen, soulful vocals, combined into one piece sound like the next step in a musical timeline, a presumed evolution from Jessie Ware’s remarkable, genre-bending pop; a projection of intimacy not too dissimilar from that which we hear on Rhye’s forthcoming debut album. Hannah Reid stands centre stage, her voice - which isn’t conventionally pretty or soulful, even, but beautiful in its unconventional nature - reaches heights that the song’s brief and sombre opening section didn’t hint at. It’s the kind of song that kickstarts a career, and it appears to have done exactly that for London Grammar.

‘Hey Now’ is taken from a forthcoming EP, due early 2013.