After scoring a Grammy for her part in Zedd's worldwide hit Clarity earlier this year, which followed further collaborations with Rudimental and Fall Out Boy, 25-year old Louisa Rose Allen, or Foxes, was that rare proposition - a UK pop singer arguably more recognisable in the US than on her home turf. A clutch of UK hits and a poster campaign for this long-awaited debut, which has her face splashed on the cover, will surely change this, though, if they haven't already.
Yet as Foxes finally strikes out on her own, she's sadly made an album somewhat lacking in personality. A quick look at the credits for Glorious offers a glimpse at what to expect. Jessie Ware collaborator Kid Harpoon manned the desk for album highlight and recent single 'Let Go For Tonight'. And, elsewhere, the production credits include names linked to the output of Marina and the Diamonds and Ellie Goulding. This is very much the world of earnest, soaring, EDM-influenced pop.
Variety, too, is lacking on Glorious. Attempts to layer synth upon vocal upon synth to beef up each chorus mean you can almost set your watch on Foxes bellowing at the top of her lungs every other minute across these 44. Luckily, unlike with Florence and the Machine (to whom Foxes' music has also been understandably compared) you at least don't feel you're being incessantly shouted at through a foghorn.
Indeed, the best thing here is Foxes' voice - it's promising and it's different, piquing interest in lyrics that rarely merit closer inspection, washing warmly over production that might otherwise leave you cold. With such an expressive voice at her disposal, it therefore seems a shame Foxes hasn't used her long-player to try and shift gear occasionally.
There are glimpses of a little more subtlety and restraint on 'Night Glo' and album closer 'Count The Saints', albeit punctuated by reverberating drum-bashes lifted straight out of Bat For Lashes' songwriting textbook. But even on these tracks Johnny Harris, aka Ghostwriter - who co-wrote and produced the lion's share of Glorious - cannot resist steadily glossing-up proceedings with walls of sound, by the end leaving them both overwrought, threatening to drown out the vocals altogether.
The production works best on more memorable, anthemic tunes like 'Youth' and 'Echo', but little else on the album threatens to linger in the memory. Foxes has spoken of how she "found her sound" on Glorious, but in truth, these 11 tracks suggests she and her producers have largely found other people's.
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