YOU'LL probably struggle to name a backing singer who’s managed to move from the shadows to the spotlight.
So Hackney’s Neo Jessica Joshua – whose support-vocals CV includes Pulp - may be a considerable way to setting a whole new trail ablaze with just her first album.
The sheer quality of For All We Know has much to do with NAO’s voice - it rises and retreats, soars and stabs, and is actually more effective because of its familiarity, as it carries traces of Sade, Aaliyah and even Gabrielle – but more to do with its assuredness and range, assisted by pristine production courtesy of an array of hired studio hands.
With R&B and soul having taken on a colder, starker, more clinical edge, NAO has spotted a gap in the field that can be filled by bringing some early 90s-style warmth, flow and fluidity to the table and sprinkling it with digital dust, moving from the Janet Jackson-influenced funk-punch of Get To Know Ya, Inhale Exhale and DYWM to the slinkiness of Adore You and Girlfriend; from Trophy’s assertive stride to the brilliant Bad Blood’s unevenness and menace.
Clever, confident, and very well-crafted, For All We Know proves that NAO definitely belongs front-of-house.
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