Nxdia - I Promise No One’s Watching

Across this debut collection from Manchester-based, Egyptian-Sudanese singer-songwriter Nxdia, it’s remarkably easy to spot how they’ve not only garnered a handful of viral pop moments (with the chorus of opener ‘Feel Anything’ and the boinging bass intro of ‘Boy Clothes’), but earned a growing throng of proper, non-soundbite-based fans. It’s a selection of tracks which, while not always hitting the mark (closer ‘Tin Man’ is a take-it-or-leave it attempt at epic that feels far too by-numbers, meaning to tick an unnecessary ‘slow one’ box), brings the belligerent punk-pop of Charli xcx’s ‘Sucker’ era to a post-Billie and Olivia landscape. (The electro-rock of ‘Boo, Nevermind’ is, we imagine, how the latter may sound should she spend a weekend at Download).

Elsewhere, there’s a smattering of Avril’s lovelorn lyricism to ‘She Likes A Boy’, and a delicious echo of Kelly Clarkson’s timeless ‘Since U Been Gone’ to the guitar lick that opens ‘Nothing At All’. This might, on paper, sound dangerously like a lesson in imitation, but it’s Nxdia’s delivery - their ability to emote vocally, and deliver as if in on the joke, if there is one - that defines it: a record that’s best summarised as being ‘all the feels’ in every which way the phrase can be interpreted. Solo artists making pop music are, currently, the most populous of all types plying their early-days wares, yet few of them seem to suggest they could actually become a pop star. Off the back of ‘I Promise No One’s Watching’, Nxdia could well be one of the exceptions.