Who is popular today?

(Polydor)On her undeniably hit-making debut, the daughter of Neneh Cherry sings ‘I’m not a people pleaser’ over backings intent on pleasing as many as possible
The title of Mabel McVey’s debut album seems less like an expression of thrusting youthful ambition than a statement of fact. High Expectations arrives with her current single Mad Love just outside the Top 10, and its predecessor, Don’t Call Me Up, still lurking around the charts a full six months after its release. Excited voices are calling her the next Dua Lipa, which sounds like faint praise – with the greatest of respect, it doesn’t quite have the hyperbolic cachet of the next Dylan or the next Madonna – until you realise that Dua Lipa is basically the only British pop artist who isn’t Ed Sheeran to have broken America in eons. They don’t want our rappers, however much Drake tries to convince them otherwise; they evince no interest in our massed ranks of earnest post-Sheeran acoustic troubadours, but it’s multiplatinum hits and million-selling albums up the wazoo for the New Rules singer. Continue reading...