Lucy Spraggan
Album: We Are
Label: CTRL
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.lucyspraggan.com

Sheffield-based songwriter and former photography salesperson Lucy Spraggan launches her third album, We Are, released on CTRL records as a digital download and a CD.

Spraggan is just coming to the end of her national Unsinkable tour that climaxes with a sell-out performance in Sheffield. The whole album is similar to it's predecessors and remains to successfully deliver lyrics, which people can easily attribute to their own lives.

After two previous albums We Are feels like a bit of a stock-take on Spraggan's life to date as she maturely documents her own years of growing up, the X factor experience and moving to London. Her humorous takes on themes of loss, love, and life have much in common with the approach of Passenger. Aside of her musicianship this is where the merits of her talents lie.

We Are presents an influx of folksy pop ranging from the tracks Broken Bones and I Don't Know similar to sounds of Lily Allen and Kate Nash. The title track Unsinkable released on the same day as she announced her engagement to her girlfriend has all the makings of a radio hit. Unsinkable is a big anthem, which is sure to be a crowd-pleaser with its bold piano, and a strong optimistic chorus.

We Are is certainly more fun than many recent albums of a similar genre and is really catchy perfect when you're busy on the move commuting to and from work. The album switches from the more soulful, The Postman, which offers a considerate look back on the loss of romanticism with modern communication and Coming Down to the sing-along choruses of IOU, I Don't Know and In This Church.

Despite having already released her first single it was her X Factor performance in 2012, which brought her story telling song writing to the wider music scene. Rapidly establishing herself as the audiences favourite Spraggan had to leave the show early because of illness, but not before hitting the charts. She seems to have survived the show without losing any credibility as an artist.

The genre once seen as new and 'quirky' must now move up from the home-shot You Tube / myspace days of Kate Nash and Regina Spektor and strive for a layer of originality that Spraggan delivers.

Leah Parker-Turnock