Emeli Sandé goes electronic on new single ‘Starlight’
If 2016 taught Emeli Sandé anything, it is that not releasing any new music for almost four years is not a great idea in this day and age. After her incredibly successful debut album Our Version of Events, she disappeared from the radar for a while, only to return last year with the gorgeous single ‘Hurts’ and the decent, but underperforming sophomore record Long Live The Angels. She has only just finished the tour for this album, but already dropped the new single ‘Starlight’, taken from the upcoming EP Kingdom Coming, to be released in November.

Sandé’s ‘Starlight’ marks a clear departure from the sound that made her a big star in the first place. Her music has never sounded so upbeat and electronic before and she was about the last person I would expect to incorporate deep house beats into her music. Then again, Sam Smith regularly switches up his ballad heavy music style by collaborating with Disclosure and that is exactly what Emeli’s new tune reminds me of. ‘Starlight’ was produced by Illangelo, famous for his work with The Weeknd and the incredible ‘In Common’ by Alicia Keys, so needless to say the production is very much on point. Lyrically however, the song is painfully cliche and rhyming starlight with night and alright in the first few lines is not a great start. ‘Starlight’ is a decent enough single and a nice change of pace for miss Sandé, but it just does not feel like the big moment for her it should have been. And if Alicia Keys could not make the superior ‘In Common’ slay the charts, I don’t expect Emeli Sandé’s ‘Starlight’ to.