Last week, fellow blogger WeAreAlwaysOpen posted about up-and-coming Liverpool-born singer/songwriter, Låpsley. Since I enjoyed the track they posted, I went looking for more.

Her music is very palatable, though it’s constantly on the verge of crossing over from electronic/indie folk to that new-agey chill-out stuff which I typically avoid. But it’s her voice that made me want to hear more. She’s got a very interesting timbre, and nearly all her singing is done right along the break between head and chest voice. In many artists, this would be irritating or at least would not produce the most pleasing sounds, but when Låpsley does it, it’s somehow soothing. She’s only 17, so I hope her voice doesn’t change too much as she gets older. I like it just in the weird place it is right now.

Her song “Falling Short” starts as a tuneful ballad in the tradition of Imogen Heap. Like Heap’s iconic “Hide and Seek,” it’s a duet with herself, albeit a pitch-shifted version of herself. Half way through, with an unexpected switch to electronic repetitiveness, the song falls off the genre fence to land pretty solidly on the chill-out side. Normally, this would detract from my enjoyment, but between her hypnotic vocals and the video’s mesmerizing Pieta style, I was completely captured.

I’d be very interested to hear what you think of it all!