Lauren Housley - A Big Voice From Yorkshire

Rotherham's Lauren Housley has been making waves on the Radio 2 playlist all summer. The big-voiced Yorkshire lass has impressed the stations listeners with her soulful depth and undeniable knack for penning a radio anthem, but as she delivers her début album 'Sweet Surrender', will she be able to deliver a full length record to that meets the high standards she has set for herself on her stunning 2012 début EP 'One Step Closer'.

The first thing that needs to be noted is that 'Sweet Surrender', while not a complete move away from the uplifting sound of her début EP, is very much a different project sonically to the release. A more experimental, yet strangely more cohesive effort, Housley demonstrates a real aptitude for the heart-stopping ballad and the thought provoking, uplifting mid-tempo.

Opening with the stunning 'Nice To See Ya', Housley has echoes of a mid-period Dolly Parton. Boasting a real ability to fuse a Southern blues / country sound with a pop sensibility, 'Nice To See Ya' has hit single written all over it. Notable for the same reason, 'Face The World Alone'. the only track to have been reworked from her début EP, is destined to be your new favourite song. While it would wow both the Nashville country scene and the rapidly growing British country
audience, it would also not be out of place on the Radio 1 playlist.

However, it is with the Radio 2 championed foot-stomper 'Ghost Town Blues' that Housley really hits a home run. A true Yorkshire anthem, 'Ghost Town Blues' is a charged sing along about her South Yorkshire home town,

'Sweet Surrender' is an intelligently written, cleverly structured and sonically balanced début long player from an artist who is destined for world wide success. Truly brilliant.