Blues-soul singer Acantha Lang cements her viability as a recording artist with debut EP Sugar Woman. The London-based singer, originally from New Orleans, is an active presence in London’s live music scene, having recently sold out the famous Jazz Cafe a few months back. Over lockdown, alongside her Standing on the Shoulders of… series of live tribute performances on Instagram, she began releasing studio material.

The EP features three of Lang’s previously released singles: the punchy ‘He Said / She Said’, a horn-laden censure of ‘fake news’; the pensive ‘Lois Lang’, a celebration of her mother’s resilience in light of romantic and personal tragedy; and the wistful but bopping ‘Whatever Happened to Our Love’.

‘Sugar Woman’ is a new addition and another gorgeously melancholic offering. Initially inspired by the Rodriguez song ‘Sugar Man’, written unambiguously about drugs and addiction, Lang asked herself: “If a ‘Sugar Man’ is a drug dealer, then what would a ‘Sugar Woman’ be?” She explains: “From that initial idea, a song was born about hope, sadness, and not giving up, even if life has taken you down some pretty dark roads.” Lang delivers the gently sketched mid-tempo with equal measures of pathos and warmth, the throaty and weathered edges to her voice adding greater conviction. ‘There’s a place where you can bask in the sun… My sweet sugar woman’, she sings.

The EP closes with Lang’s rendition of ‘I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free’, written by Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas but repurposed and popularised by Nina Simone as a civil rights anthem. Lang chose to cover the song in full after recording a version for a McDonalds commercial in Europe. A stripped back rendition which builds in energy, Lang pours her soul into the performance.