The second song by Isabelle Brown (who I first featured back in October here) is fearless. Hey Romeo was written and recorded when Isabelle was just twelve – yes you read that right – twelve, and bootlegs Eric B and Rakim. It’s street sharp, cool as f*ck and shows off her influences of hip-hop, soul and jazz. The blurb I received with the track tells me that the song was conceived as a fantasy about singing to someone in a crowd who has no idea that you even exist or that the song is about them.
As I said in my previous post on Isabelle, it’s very early days for her, (she's fourteen now) but on the strength of the two songs she’s put out there’s some serious talent here. Impressive stuff.
A debut project, taking in Isabelle’s early recordings, is due early next year.
Isabelle Brown - Hey Romeo
It’s very early days for Isabelle Brown but listening to her debut release Pot Of Gold you’d think she has been doing this for years. Well, in a way she has, for 7 at least; because that’s when she wrote her first love song. However, that was when she was just 7 years old. Yes, Isabelle is just 14, but you’d never be able to tell by listening to her sturdily deep soulful voice.
Listening to Brown reminds me a little of the first time I heard Joss Stone, another singer who blew everyone away when she first arrived at the age of just 16 with the Soul Sessions album – it’s the jazzy maturity of what she’s producing that stuns as much as the actual song. Pot of Gold sounds like Isabelle is already destined a prime slot on Later... with Jools Holland.
However, let’s not get too hasty here. To repeat, it’s very early days.
So, what can I tell you about Isabelle? She’s from Brighton, that first love song that she wrote at junior school age she describes as "an absolute laugh, as I'd never even kissed a boy but thought I was the number one romance guru", and she was brought up in two different creative households when her parents separated whilst she was still young. This debut track features rising Arizona trio Injury Reserve who bring their old-school laid-back rap style to compliment Isabelle’s soul and is all about achieving your potential, something which Brown already seems close to doing. A more than impressive start.
Isabelle Brown - Pot of Gold
