Remember Elle Watson? Her name popped up for the first time on Breaking More Waves in January when I wrote an honest / cynical / mildly funny / self-depreciating (delete as applicable depending on your perspective) post on the secret world of music 'tastemakers' and what goes on behind the scenes to help them keep in touch and retain their 'tastemaker' status. At the time I mentioned that whilst Elle’s debut release Body was decent enough, and a bit of a grower, there was better to come.
Well, here’s one of those ‘better to come’ tracks. It’s called Phantom and it’s really lovely. It follows the modern minimal template that was laid out by the likes of The XX back in 2009 and has been gradually developed ever since through bands like London Grammar to, more recently, the likes of Rosie Lowe. I mention Rosie because Phantom is released via Wolf Tone (producer Paul Epworth’s label) who also released Rosie’s debut album Control, so there’s more than just a sonic connection.
“There’s something unexplainable I can’t shake off,” sings Rosie, using the Phantom as a metaphor for a feeling that can’t be described. As you listen to the song’s chilled soulful delivery you may well be expecting it to suddenly explode into banger territory, and go all Sia / Katy Perry on us, but thankfully it doesn’t. Because Phantom is all about the art of the understated; graceful smooth beauty.
Elle Watson will be playing the BBC Introducing Stage at T in the Park festival next Sunday.
Elle Watson - Phantom
Right now marketing new pop music is a complicated old business. But if you look in the Rules of Pop 2016, (Hardcover) edition Chapter 8, section 2.3, you’ll see that not putting out your biggest song first is still one of the best ways to go. You need to get the ‘tastemakers’ with their latest iphones, Nutribullets and beautiful clothes on board. For these people their whole raison d'être is to be 'on it' earlier than everyone else, so that they can claim to be influential and bang up their Klout scores. The tastemakers can help the new artist by giving them credibility and that way the artist can build popularity gradually without early mainstream over exposure. Even better, if you're the 'tastemaker' that premieres the song on line then you can claim bigger bragging rights than all the other tastemakers in the war of the cool.
So what you do is let the tastemakers secretly hear a number of songs by the new artist, so that they are convinced that there is something worth backing. Then when the artist puts out the first song and it’s kind of OK, but not exactly going to set the world on fire, the tastemakers can all pretend they can hear potential and justify jumping on the track, because in reality they’ve already heard the better songs that are coming.
So here’s a new artist, with her first song. Her name is Elle Watson and the track is called Body. The blurb with the email that came accompanying the tune tells us that it was written in Stockholm and influenced by the novel You by Caroline Kepnes, with Elle singing from the perspective of being stalked and confined, only to fall in love with the captor.
It’s actually a half decent song (honestly); it's a bit of a grower, taking a couple of listens to really sink in. Basically it's sort of thing that tastemakers might love. I can see some potential with this artist….
Elle Watson - Body
