Billed as a “stripped-down affair of funeral pop”, the debut solo album from ex-Alphastates vocalist Cat Dowling promises something very special indeed, if first single ‘Cruel’ is anything to go by. Echoing indie queen of cool St. Vincent and that Dido album that sold 12 million copies in equal measures, it’s a bassy, string-led anti-love song that effortlessly fuses instrumental theatrics with Dowling’s sweetly understated vocal.