Album of the Day: Shura's 'Nothing’s Real' - dance-pop that’s perceptive and lucid

Nothing's Real
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Artist: Shura
Genre: Pop
Label: Polydor

Manchester’s Shura (aka, but not to many, we think, Alexandra Lilah Denton) is possibly the only songwriter/musician to have been nominated for the BBC’s Sound of 2015 – or any other year, for that matter –who developed their songwriting skills while working in the Amazon rainforest.

Her cultured background (mother an actor, father a documentary filmmaker; she studied English Lit at college) may not have informed her music, but the song narratives are as perceptive and lucid as you could hope for.

As for the music – well, there's no doubt whatsoever that Shura knows her way in and around pop music: with the exception of the final self-indulgent, rambling nine-plus-minutes of The Space Tapes, the remainder of Nothing's Real contains some of the most assured, deft dance-pop of the year.

Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in popular culture