Jetta - I'd Love To Change The World

Is Jetta about to ditch her flourishing pop career for one in politics? Unlikley, but the title alone of her new song, a cover of I’d Love To Change The World by late 60’s / early 70’s blues rock band Ten Years After would suggest so. Of course even the likes of Billy Bragg or Frank Turner would admit that a pop song can’t change the world on its own, but in a small way it can make someone think and if someone is prepared to think they may change their perspective on things.

However on closer listening, despite the lyrics of the song being somewhat dated  (“everywhere, freaks and hairies, dykes and fairies”) Jetta’s transformation of the tune, with its impressively moody cinematic underscore, finds some relevance to today with Jetta singing for the disconnected youth of now. There’s still a massive gap between the people in government and those they represent. “I’d love to change the world, but I don’t know what to do, so I’ll leave it up to you,” Jetta sings, bringing home that feeling of detachment. 

This song has already been featured on the trailer for the forthcoming film Nightcrawler featuring Jake Gyllenhall. For many this will be a new song. Want to hear the (quite radically different) original? Click here.

Jetta - I'd Love To Change The World

Jetta - Crescendo

You can tell when someone gets to that top floor level of being so well known that they don’t have to use their surname anymore. From John, Paul, George and Ringo through to Adele, you know instantly who those people are. Jetta isn’t anywhere near that level yet, but Crescendo is likely to push her forward, helped by the production assistance of another man who we all know by just one name – Pharrell. 

Of course if you’re a long term reader of Breaking More Waves you may know Jetta’s name, after all we first featured this ex Paloma Faith backing singer and Liverpool lass way back in 2012, but it’s taken her until now to get round to releasing what appears to be tagged as her debut single proper from a forthcoming EP, which leads us into a whole different debate about when is a newly released song online not a single and when is it and does it really matter anymore?

Crescendo is quite a departure from Jetta’s previous songs like the big soul stormer of Start A Riot or the epic lighters in the air ballad Feels Like Coming Home, being much more pop light, with a lilting vocal chant, but shows that she can apply herself to any style – in this case an updated mix of Amazulu, early Bananarama and The Belle Stars but with a modern funky groove and a hint of Icona Pop (and dare we say it (gulp) Little Mix?)

Jetta - Crescendo

Jetta - Feels Like Coming Home

Jetta first graced these pages back in 2012 when we presented one of the simplest formulas that can be found in the maths and equations sections of The Rules Of Pop (Chapter 9). That formula was big songs + big lungs = big results. Those big results started with two songs titled Start A Riot and Can You Hear Me and just got even bigger with Feels Like Coming Home. In the last two weeks 15 million people have heard Feels Like Coming Home due to Google using it to back their 2013 Zeitgeist video. So irrespective of if you’ve seen the Google video or not, take a listen to the full version below and meet a giant of a tune.

Jetta - Feels Like Coming Home

Jetta - Can You Hear Me (Live Acoustic Video)

Last week we introduced a new artist – the incredible Jetta. So this week we’re starting off with some video footage which demonstrates exactly why that word incredible is fully justified. Here Jetta strips back Can You Hear Me to something raw, fully convincing and delivers the song with an easy and effortless power.

If you’re in London here’s our suggestion this week; no, it’s not a suggestion, it’s a command. Do whatever it takes to find yourself £5. Sell your mums Abba CD’s, steal from a beggar, turn to prostitution, just do it. 

Then take yourself down to Camden Monarch on Wednesday 17 October to watch not only the incredible (we said it again – sometimes repetition is the best kind of reinforcement of a view) Jetta but also another artist who we sneaked onto the blog last May – Laurel – who signed  a deal with one of Universal’s development arms Turnfirst in June (hear her beautiful song Next Time by clicking the link under her name). It will be the best £5 you’ve spent this year. Watch Can You Hear Me and see why we’re not wrong about Jetta. INCREDIBLE.

Jetta - Can You Hear Me (Live)

Jetta - New Waves

Yesterday we mentioned on the blog how over the last few years the UK doesn’t seem short of big voiced female singers. From Adele to Florence and all those in between, big songs + big lungs = big results commercially. Now this observation is nothing new, lots of commentators have said something similar. However, what normally happens now is that those commentators (who are often male) make some vaguely sexist comment about how the market is over saturated with these female singers which frankly is ridiculous considering approximately half the world is made up of women. 

So today we’re introducing Jetta. 

This Liverpool born lass has previously worked as a backing singer for both Cee-Lo-Green and Paloma Faith (we can imagine her outsinging both) as well as Jakwob where she laid down her titanic tones on his dubstep track Electrify. However, it’s Jetta’s debut solo single, the authoritative Start A Riot that has put her under our spotlight. Here Zetta captures the current big song zeitgeist perfectly;  with a heavyweight soul vocal and a tune that crashes around like it wants to smash its way out of a box labelled ‘third Florence album’. 

Comparisons will inevitably also be drawn with Emile Sandé and Leona Lewis in the UK, but Start A Riot sounds as if it bubbles with a darker intent than either of those two middle of the road artists. It's is an impressive start. Jetta’s out of the traps now, let’s see how far she goes.

Jetta - Start A Riot