McKay

A playwright, b-girl, friend of The Neptunes, and former member of Kelis’ backing band, Stephanie McKay is certainly a far more welcome product of the Bronx than the ridiculous J-Lo. In choosing Portishead’s Geoff Barrow as producer for her debut album, she’s also sign-posted her desire to avoid the bling-bling clichés of her peers, instead adding an alluring East Coast accent to the mid-90s trip hop blueprint.

When things click – as they do on ‘Thinking Of You’ and the ‘Double Barrel’ sampling ‘Take Me Over’ – it’s great. McKay prowls around like a grown-bad Ms Dynamite, with Barrow framing her in high-class atmospherics. And even when the quality drops – ‘Tell Him’ seems to find Barrow pining for the dramatics Beth Gibbons – the patina of smooth, platinum grade, nu soul never cracks.

Maybe it’s a bit too crystalline for some palates, but summer’s here and Stephanie McKay seems worthy of cracking open water hydrants. Enjoyable.