Laura Mvula teams up with some white man for her 80s slow dance jam "What Matters"

Laura Mvula had a rough ass time with that second album. Her debut album Sing to the Moon received critical acclaim, won her a MOBO and nabbed her a Mercury Prize nomination. The album even hit well enough that Laura was given a whole ass budget to re-record an orchestral version of it at Abbey Road studios. Who the fuck does that?! But it all went pear shaped with her second album The Dreaming Room, which despite also receiving critical acclaim, resulted in her getting dropped by Sony - because acclaim alone don't make record labels money.

But 2020 and 2021 have been the years of reinvention for many. And with a new Warner Music record deal, Laura is rolling out brand new. Where-as most artists have been on the disco train, Laura is rolling coach in the Honda Civvy and going 80s. Her single "Got Me" sounded so much like a Michael Jackson song that I swore blind it had sampled him. And the video reminded me of Bree Runway's "Hot Hot" so distinctly that I'm surprised she didn't get dragged for it. Or maybe she did on Twitter and I just didn't see it. Cute song. Cute video. But neither really showcased Laura's uniqueness or her concept for this upcoming album Pink Noise as well as this song right here.

The cool thing with this music video is that I think some of the main vocals were genuinely live. They sound different to the version of the song released to streaming. 

So much of the music releasing at the moment is uptempo with the intent of having everybody sweat a wig out, that it's nice to have a slow down moment in the midst of it all. And that white man (Simon Neil of the band Biffy Clyro) is such an unlikely artist to see featured on a song with Laura, but he's such a great fit for the song. So much so to the point that for a moment, I thought 'What if he sang the whole thing though...'.

Laura Mvula's Pink Noise is shaping up to be an album to look out for.