Rebecca Ferguson – Glitter & Gold 
The most obvious single choice on Ferguson’s sensational album Heaven, “Glitter & Gold” comes across as Sade’s honey vocals covering Amy Winehouse’s motown pop.
Effortlessly memorable and unique, the track is a prime example of why Ferguson took the UK’s pop crown in 2011. What makes listening to Rebecca Ferguson so amazing, beyond her one-of-a-kind voice and reinvention of classic genres, is that she clearly writes the music herself. When Ferguson sings, it is unquestionable that she sings from experience, “All that glitter and gold won’t buy you happy when you’ve been bought and sold.”
A fitting statement from someone who stuck her middle finger up at the music exes so she could write her own CD. 4.5 stars.
Paloma Faith – Picking Up The Pieces
When Paloma Faith emerged in 2009 as yet another Winehouse, Duffy or Adele, her arrival was met with groans – surely not another by-the-numbers, nostalgic siren?
The sceptics were silenced when Faith’s debut, Do You Want the Truth or Something Beautiful, achieved solid reviews and sold half a million copies in her native UK, without the aid of a hit single. Most importantly, she established her own identity in the process.
Enlisting the production know-how of Nellee Hooper (Bjork, No Doubt, Madonna, Garbage, U2 and Massive Attack, basically anyone amazing), “Picking up the Pieces” has all the ingredients for a classic, but lies just short.
Paloma Faith’s strength lies in two aspects; her soaring vocals and her ability to create stories that resonate with the masses. The all-too-familiar tale of competing with a partner’s ex, “Picking up the Pieces” stays true to Faith’s previous work, while concurrently steering into an anthemic territory.
While it doesn’t deliver the goods as a lead single, Faith’s debut album suggested she is more interested in releasing fluent albums than three singles and filler. 3.5 stars.
360 – Child
After the runaway success of the dub/hip-hop masterpiece, “Boys Like You”, featuring the amazing Gossling, 360 had a hard act to follow with his next single. This feat is even harder when you consider that he’d already released three singles before “Boys Like You” slayed radio.
“Child” features a catchy loop and doesn’t stray too far from his proven formula, but ultimately falls very short of “Boys Like You.” In saying that, 360’s album was condensed with amazing tracks and a strong contender against Hilltop Hoods as Australia’s best hip-hopper. 3 stars.
