Emma-Jean Thackray - Yellow

With a brace of EPs and guest appearances already to her name - most notably on Squid’s ‘Bright Green Field’ - it is with ‘Yellow’ that Emma-Jean Thackray delivers her first major statement as a solo artist. What is more, it’s a statement that makes no bones about its cosmic intentions. Festooned with planetary hymns and gushes of free-love sentiment, the LP achieves the kind of celestial ecstasy it so avidly craves. Surging opener ‘Mercury’ spirals into euphoria with Kae Tempest-like spoken word; ‘Say Something’ deliciously innovates jazz flair with a driving disco-house beat; ‘Third Eye’ darts around like a streaming comet. While ‘Yellow’ mixes it up nicely with freak-outs, group chants, P-funk and mellowing R&B, it is lyrically where the album wearies: Invariable repetitions of the same love-thy-neighbour / free-your-mind maxims, and the trite turn of phrase (“My babe is golden green, smells like biscuits…”), can pull focus from musical virtuosity so abundantly on show.