Kenna - Make Sure They See My Face

With Mark Ronson bestriding the narrow world of pop like a colossus, it’s unsurprising that promising new artist Kenna is being taking on tour by Mr. Toxic himself. Unfortunately, the support Kenna’s received from luminaries like Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake and Chad Hugo from the Neptunes fuels an overbearing sense of hype that’s hard to live up to. While Loose Wires/ Blink Radio is the greatest track Duran Duran never wrote, Static attempts to be the album’s Cry Me a River and suffers by comparison. Kenna pens great tunes, full of catchy instrumentation, retro chic and perfect pop gloss, but he’s still struggling to find the distinctive vocal style that will make him absolutely earth-conquering. On Sun Red, Blue Sky, he manages to cut loose, and belts out a beast of a track. But quite simply, Kenna has yet to match Daniel Merriweather’s unhinged falsetto, or Justin Timberlake’s aural sex appeal. This is solid work, but it ultimately fails to deliver. [Liam Arnold]