Blood
Lianne La Havas
(Nonesuch)
Three stars
Lianne La Havas is a 25-year-old singer-songwriter from London who has a big fan in Prince – her voice is relaxed but powerful, moving easily from languid sensuality to delicate yearning.
Blood, her second album, blends Havas's guitar-based folk influences with R&B and mellow, jazzy soul. There are strong hooks, big, bubbling basslines, delicate keyboards and subdued horns on a record that opens with Unstoppable, a percolating anthem co-written by Adele collaborator Paul Epworth.
This is a set of smoothly accomplished songs, which includes the disco-tinged What You Don't Do, funky ode to loneliness Tokyo and spare, subtle ballad Wonderful. La Havas is a sensational singer whose sensitive songwriting lacks the wit and wildness of a troubled original like the late Amy Winehouse. That's probably good news for La Havas but leaves some of her songs feeling tepid. Blood never quite boils.
artslife@thenational.ae
