Alfie Templeman - Radiosoul

Although only 21, Alfie Templeman has been a firm fixture on playlists and festival lineups alike for some time now, having cemented his status as the wunderkind of indie pop with buoyant early EP cuts like ‘Circles’ and ‘Happiness in Liquid Form’. Even then, there was a sense that Alfie possessed a certain je ne sais quoi that distinguished him from his more run-of-the-mill pop peers, and on second album ‘Radiosoul’, he deftly proves that those credentials are well warranted. The product of a period of considerable fluctuation and personal growth (starting to live independently from your parents is a big shift for anyone, let alone when you have touring burnout, social media overstimulation, and mental health challenges to contend with), the LP is accordingly explorative, taking in the high art-pop of Scissor Sisters (‘Eyes Wide Shut’; ‘Drag’), the sun-drenched indie of Declan McKenna (‘Vultures’; ‘Hello Lonely’), and the club-ready disco of Nile Rogers (quite literally – ‘Just A Dance’ features guest guitar playing from the funk legend himself). 

Elsewhere, the influence of Alfie’s other collaborators – including The Vaccines’ Justin Young, and cult producer Dan Carey – come to the fore, with ‘Beckham’ showcasing crunchier textures and his knack for an earworm hook (“Sutton, Bexley, Tooting, Earlsfield / Streatham, Peckham, David Beckham” is ripe for a festival field call-and-response singalong). Here, maturity doesn’t entail dourness or restraint, but rather open-mindedness and a joyful self-confidence. A technicolour triumph that’s his most ambitious, maximalist, and forward-facing work yet, ‘Radiosoul’ shows Alfie Templeman to be not just ‘good for his age’, but an assured, fully-formed artist capable of holding his own beside some of the industry’s best.