Fiona Bevan - Talk to Strangers (2014)

Talk To Strangers is the bewitching debut album from Suffolk-born singer-songwriter Fiona Bevan, released 28th April on Navigator Records. Bevan describes her debut album as "pop in disguise", and the dozen, dynamic songs have hooks, harmonies and melodies that linger from first listen, but are defiantly timeless and purposely hard to pin down. Bevan, who has already tasted success as a chart-topping songwriter for One Direction, wrote all 12 songs on Talk To Strangers, which was recorded in producer Shawn Lee's Bloomsbury studio on entirely analogue equipment. Bevan plays guitar, violin, double bass, accordion, and harp, and even adds the occasional whistle of birdsong. Holding everything together is her extraordinary, sweet voice, as unique and distinctive as her mop of peroxide curls. The album was mastered in San Francisco by the legendary George Horn, who has been cutting vinyl since the '60s for musicians including Paul Simon, Sly & The Family Stone, Bob Dylan, and John Coltrane. Fiona Bevan has already established a stellar career as an in-demand songwriter. As well as commissions for film, classical compositions, and a Tate exhibition, she co-wrote Little Things with Ed Sheeran, a 2012 No.1 single for One Direction. Last year, Bevan wrote, recorded and toured with jazz vocalist Gwyneth Herbert. Reviewing the show in London, The Guardian wrote "Bevan took us on startling odysseys that suggested Erykah Badu, Joanna Newsom and Kate Bush spine-tinglingly joined". Most recently, Bevan was in Los Angeles co-writing with Grammy Award-winning producer John Shanks and lent her vocals to south London rapper Fem Fel on his single Over, which gained Radio 1 support and was chosen as Zane Lowe's Next Hype last November.