‘Irrepressibly feel-good.’ 

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To be included within the Welsh A-level Music syllabus is quite the endorsement (and potential path to immortalisation). Indeed, Welsh singer Kizzy Crawford – of Barbadian, Welsh, and English heritage – has grown an underground following of sorts. Though yet to break into the mainstream, the 22 year old singer/songwriter has attracted considerable radio coverage, and has performed at Glastonbury and the London Jazz Festival. With a bilingual upbringing, Crawford records in both English and Welsh in a style which blends jazz, folk, and soul.

Released on Freestyle Records, her new single, ‘Progression’, is irrepressibly feel-good. A glockenspiel flourish flows into a relaxed beat on this midtempo jam which oozes a gentle optimism. There is a warm sense of ‘everything’s going to be alright’, despite the trials and tribulations of embracing adulthood. ‘In a couple of years / After all of my tears / When I’m rid of my fears / That will be progression’, Crawford sings on the naggingly catchy chorus.

Vocally, she sits in the Ellie Goulding/Corinne Bailay Rae/Ingrid Michaelson milieu of light, sweet, melodious voices. She begins softly, rising with more authority at the end of the chorus as she sings, ‘I’m alive’. Her tone in the bridge, particularly as she dips into her lower register, has a remarkable resemblance to Karen Carpenter (2:38 in the embedded video below). 

(Image Copyright: Freestyle Records)