Låpsley

In just over a year, Holly Låpsley Fletcher has become XL’s alternative to Adele. Swapping sixth form studies for her real passion of singing, writing and producing music, the 19-year-old’s mature debut is an autobiographical “art project”.

‘Love Is Blind’ and ‘Hurt Me’, full of epic drums, pianos and anthemic choruses, are subtle but stadium-ready tearjerkers, while ‘Operator (He Doesn’t Call Me’) is a meditation on the struggles of a long distance relationship disguised as a disco number.

Both ‘Station’ and ‘Painter’ – originally recorded by messing around with GarageBand, a cheap keyboard and a £90 microphone – are icy and haunting, but ‘Falling Short’ is the real heartbreaker.