Some of the more underground / alt. websites and blogs such as Crack In The Road expressed their dissatisfaction at the end of 2011 that the vast majority of blog Ones to Watch lists contained ‘artists they’ve spent the last twelve months salivating over, rather than attempting to predict whom they will be falling head over heels for in 2012.’ However the difficulty here is nobody knows 100% what's round the corner in terms of new music. How many music sites of any type predicted in 2010 that by the end of 2011 much of the internet would be getting uncontrollably excited (in both a positive and negative way) about Lana Del Rey? Very few if any of course, because quite simply they didn't know at that point in time.
It’s why at Breaking More Waves our Ones to Watch 2012 list is in the main a summary of some of the artists we’ve written about the previous year (or even before that) as they move towards a position of releasing their debut album, interspersed with just a few newbies who we guess may meet the falling in love with 2012 criteria.
If you want to see a preview of our Ones to Watch 2013, then you’ll have to read every blog post we feature this year starting from now, because it’s almost guaranteed that during the year some of the new acts we write about will end up on our December list. Others of course, we’ll never write about again. 95% of our posts go up at 8.30 in the morning or 8.30 at night GMT so why not check in each day?
So here’s today’s new act, our first of 2012.We have no idea yet if it’s a long term thing or a short term crush, but certainly Emma-Louise has got our heart racing a little.
This Brisbane based singer has already been named Breakthrough Artist Of The Year at the Jagermeister Independent Music Awards in her home country of Australia, seen her signature tune Jungle (streaming below) nominated for Triple J’s Hottest 100 songs of the year in Australia and has had the same song placed on TV show Grey's Anatomy. Her debut EP Full Hearts and Empty Rooms topped the Australian independent music charts for weeks and we pretty much guarantee when you listen to the track you’ll see why.
In mood Jungle is a blissful come down pop song, but unlike much of its genre it has real soul and emotion without ever having to resort to any bellowing vocal gymnastics. Emma-Louise sings of the complexities, hurt, pain and confusion of love with a restraint and tension that ebbs and flows perfectly, making the song more real, more substantial than your typical off-the-peg studio based effort. Yet let’s not pigeon hole Emma-Louise as just some sort of cool but sensitive pop princess, because the rest of her output, which you can see and hear in the form of DIY videos on You Tube, display the signs of a much developed acoustic contemporary singer songwriter, not that dissimilar to Breaking More Waves favourite Lucy Rose.
With such a sweet vocal talent and ability to write affecting songs, we’re hoping, almost willing ourselves to fall even further head over heels with Emma-Louise in 2012. Maybe you will as well.
Emma Louise - Jungle
Emma Louise - Bones
