Ava Lily came to my attention thanks to Michael Barratt. Who is he I hear you ask? Well, he was the UK’s biggest selling singles artist of the 1980’s. Yes really. Still don’t remember him? No? OK, maybe you might just know him as the knee trembling, one time Elvis impersonator, Shakin’ Stevens. He had number ones with the likes of This Ole House, Green Door and Oh Julie and even played Glastonbury in 2008 to a capacity crowd despite being the first act of the day.
So how come old Shaky? Is he now one of the hottest new music tipsters around? Sadly not. It was simply that at the back end of 2015, when I was writing my annual pre-Christmas blog posts I was searching for some quality covers by new or emerging artists and a Soundcloud search of Shaky’s Merry Christmas Everyone brought me to Ava Lily. Since that time there’s been another cover (of Zayn’s Pillowtalk) but it’s her own song, the freshly minted Painkiller that has brought her to the pages of Breaking More Waves again.
Painkiller is a rainy day Sunday sixties influenced piece of soul that soothes as equally as at it grooves. It’s the sound of classic sophistication – the sort of thing The Avalanches might have sampled for one of their records. It oozes quality and it's been on repeat on my stereo today.
A quick look on Ava’s Soundcloud shows that the track is being released through Naughty Records, a label started by Naughty Boy as a joint venture with Virgin EMI – so sadly my random Shakin’ Stevens search didn’t lead me to a great new unsigned talent, but a great talent nonetheless.
Ava Lily - Painkiller
