Well what do you need to know about this record? I could tell you, because I know how to use Google, that Vanessa Brown is from Northampton and that she turned down the chance to go to Oxford Uni and lots of other stuff PR people want you to hear about (although maybe not the bit about Northampton). I could also tell you that this could easily be a Beverley Knight song from ten years ago. I could even say that Pharrell Williams might have had a hand in it since he apparently made a pass at her when she was recording her forthcoming album.
But all this is would just be thin-sliced Homepride around a meaty chunk of nu-disco, passionately and soulfully performed by Ms. Brown who, at the very least, is not trying to be the British Beyoncé. Clearly more interested in doing her truly independent woman thing than aping the current shrill-voiced teenage 'soul' females, she leaves Charlotte Church standing faster than you can say "insubstantial, anaemic faux diva frump". The lyrics are a marvel of economy without being trite, and Brown gives them an idiosyncratic LA-via-South-London glottal stop rhythmic delivery that more than makes up for the thin, over-polished production on the backing track.
But what you really need to know about this record is this: it's damn funky.
more 