One hand raised to the heavens, the opposite fastened sharply on her hip, Olivia Dean is beaming. The 25-year-old musician is simply three songs into her largest headline tour up to now, and Echo – final yr’s suave, soulful pop single about presumably misplaced belief – is an elegant foil for her glamorous, Supremes-style choreography and her chemistry along with her charismatic seven-piece band. With one flick of the wrist she summons a flourish of keys, a cymbal splash or a joyous trombone solo, and Dean appears each thrilled and in complete management.
Nonetheless: “I’m fairly nervous this night,” she confesses, delicately sipping a Purple Stripe. It’s stunning to listen to from the Brit Faculty graduate, every week after she delivered a stand-out Coachella set however, then once more, Dean’s crowds are rising quickly. Solely final yr she performed to an viewers 1 / 4 of the scale, down the highway at King Tuts. She’s since been nominated for 3 Brit awards, and in June she’s sure for Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage.
Her debut album Messy, shortlisted for the Mercury prize, is about post-break up self-discovery and surrendering to inventive imperfections. The title monitor’s mantra – “it goes should you let it, it’s OK to remorse it” – feels notably resonant tonight, because the track culminates in a unfastened, rockier rendition of its traditional outro. Dean tosses her curls, tambourine in hand, and cathartically shakes off that coiffed Motown composure. On file Messy can really feel too manicured, however tonight its tracks bloom within the mild of Dean’s radiant stage presence and that luxuriously giant band (more and more uncommon in as we speak’s touring economic system).
The brass trio emphasise the reggae in swooning romance Hazard, and Women Room turns into a sunny, feel-good excuse for jazzy musical solos. The set lingers too lengthy on a stripped-back center part, though the hush highlights Dean’s creamy voice, and when the total band reunites behind tracks reminiscent of Carmen, devoted to her Guyanese grandmother and the “bravery of immigrants”, it seems like a road get together. “She could be so gassed to listen to you screaming!” Dean shouts, glowing with pleasure, no nerves left in sight. Clearly, the larger the present, the brighter she shines.
