Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe. All my Songs of the Week are featured on my Top of the Poptastic playlist, along with the rest of my faves from 2017.
I think I’ve finally heard what other pop fans must hear when they listen to Carly Rae Jepsen. The new single from Polydor signing Hannah Jane Lewis is pure pop joy. Raincheck is sassy, but in a cute and bubbly way, without the slightest edge. It sounds like eating the best sour sweets (the fizzy worms from Waitrose, or the Haribo sour bears they have in America). Hannah studied at Tisch School of the Arts in New York (where Gaga also went), but is signed in the UK, was born in Surrey, and has been working with British producers like Karen Poole, Anita Blay and Phil Cook. Raincheck was written with Nicole Blair, Henrik Moreborg, and Tormod Løkling, three unfamiliar names that I shall certainly be looking out for in future. Researching Hannah herself provided an unexpected twist. Prior to her rebirth as an electro-popper, she had a past as a country artist, with plenty of remnants online, such as the music video for her Sandi Thom-esque single Seventeen Again. As much as I enjoy a bit of country, in this case I’m very glad she went pop. I don’t want to imagine a world where Raincheck never existed!