- Opinion
- 09 Mar 23
The BIMM grad’s saccharine pop debut needed more risks.
Ahead of Maisie Peters’ second offering, after Baby Queen’s debut album and before Dua Lipa’s third opus, it seems like the UK pop girlies are smashing the charts of everyone, everywhere, all at once. The build up to Mimi Webb’s debut album Amelia has been a long time coming, with numerous viral singles - each as addictively catchy and melodic as the next, and all showing off her husky, booming vocals.
A mistake would be to assume there’s little difference between the rising female pop acts around us. You could say the same, for example, about the saturation of male indie-rock bands. Webb’s strong alto-soprano vocals on Amelia are undeniably jawdropping, but the algorithmic nature of her TikTok virality sound can be frustrating.
There are some heartbreak anthems in the form of ‘Heart on Fire’, ‘Ghost of You’, ‘Red Flags’ and emotional new single ‘Roles Reversed’, but some of her ballads get lost in the mix (‘Both of Us’, ‘Is It Possible’, ‘Last Train to London’). She’s at her best on tracks like ‘See You Soon’, tracing coming-of-age tales with insane vocal abilities, but there’s only so many radio-friendly two-minute break up songs we can listen to without wanting a reprieve. Her potential should be nurtured without streaming numbers in mind.
Listen: ‘Ghost of You’
Score: 6.5/10
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Out now via Sony Music Ireland.