Ala.Ni - You & I album review: A grand entrance from a singer with much to offer

It’s Ala.Ni’s voice that does all the wooing and cooing on her debut album.

She's a west London-born, Paris-based singer with family roots in Grenada who has done time as a session singer with the likes of Damon Albarn and Mary J Blige before deciding to follow her own star. Songs like Cherry Blossom and Ol' Fashioned Kiss sum up her appeal; each full of lush, hazy intrigue and sultry, bittersweet soul courtesy of that voice with its swathes of Judy Garland, Minnie Riperton and Julee Cruise.

Once you go beyond the voice, though, you can catch the stirrings of some interesting arrangements and intriguing patterns on the songs, especially when the singer combines quaint structural ideas rarely seen in mainstream pop with more delicate, tender musical contours. A grand solo entrance from a singer with much to offer.

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