The Observer - 04.08.2019

40

The Observer

04.08.19

Critics

Pop

Critics

Mabel: Pop music ‘made from

trap beats, tropical breezes and

a little lubriciousness’.

Something

sassy this

way comes

Eschewing the artiness of her uber-cool

heritage, Mabel serves up dizzying chart-

friendly pop and R&B on her debut album.

But does she have to be quite so generic?

Artist of the week

Mabel

High Expectations

(Polydor)

Kitty

Empire

her fellow up’n’coming Londoner

worked because of the warmth

coming off the pair, so different

from pop’s prevailing cut-throat

lust-vibes.

Mabel, though, is not just any

23-year- old warbler from west

London ; she is an artist who comes

with pedigree and, you suspect,

pragmatism. She is the daughter

of illustrious parents: Swedish -

born pop outlier Neneh Cherry

and producer Cameron McVey , two

creatives with no shortage of cool.

Cherry comes from jazz royalty

(her stepfather was trumpeter Don

Cherry ) and her fi rst band, Rip Rig

and Panic, fused post-punk with

skronk ; her 1989 solo hit single

Buffalo Stance was all bullish and

hip-hop in its suspicion of money

and its demand for “sweetness”.

McVey senior, meanwhile, produced

Massive Attack’s seminal Blue Lines.

There is no reason anyone

should follow in their parents’

footsteps. Mabel McVey doesn’t.

Her offi cial debut studio album

eschews the left-fi eld artiness in

her lineage. It also misplaces the

charm of her own earlier releases.

Despite being packed with bangers,

High Expectations is not a little

frustrating, reigniting an old

question: by what criteria should we

judge success?

Last year, Jorja Smith provided

a template for how a self-

possessed British voice can

make internationally recognised

mainstream music that’s both

streetwise and vulnerable. Anyone

expecting innovative R&B from

Mabel will be disappointed.

There’s plenty of big-trainered

sass on High Expectations, but it’s

the canned stuff that goes “I was

unruly when you met me, you just

have to accept it ”, as per Mabel’s

recent single, Bad Behaviour.

You’re reminded of Lauryn Hill’s

advice in Doo Wop (That Thing) ,

all those years ago, but evergreen:

“Don’t be hard rock when you really

are a gem .”

If chart hits and playlist ubiquity

are the metrics, then Mabel has

got High Expectations exactly right.

The songs that have preceded

this 14- track album are currently

Every album released comes
freighted with hope, this one
more than most. Mabel is one of
the year’s hottest breakout acts,
having  gone from box-fresh to
bona fi de phenomenon in the space
of two years.
One minute, she had a blink-
and-you’ll-miss-her visual cameo
in the video for Skepta’s magisterial
Shutdown (2015 ). The next, she’d
had her own hit, 2017’s Finders
Keepers. Then came more lighter
fl uid on her sizzle: collaborations
with rapper Not3s – My Lover and
Fine Line – which infl amed curiosity
online thanks to the pair’s on-screen
chemistry. Songs are all well and
good, but plotlines really keep
the public’s attention. Whatever
РЕЛИЗ the truth, Mabel’s hook-up with

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