Jamie T

There's an inexplicable sensation that only the most natural and well-honed songwriting talents can induce, a feeling that every word is hooking your insides and drawing them all out for the room to see. Every chorus makes you smile like no one ever sees you smile, or weep as if you've lost everything. There are a few of these songwriters alive today, some of which are now past their era of mindblowing songsmithery and are happy peddling middle-of-the-road dullardry to the easily-pleased masses; there is also a slowly developing new wave of musicians and lyricists who are surpassing the efforts of their forefathers and creating some of the most interesting and impassioned music you could ever hope to hear. At the top of the game, quite simply, is Jamie T.

From the so real it hurts school of street poetry, 'So Lonely Was The Ballad' (taken from his debut Selfish Sons 7") is almost theatrical in its acting out of taking a girl "around the back" and making sure she "comes back limping". Ordinarily, you could easily see yourself cringing at such blatant imagery, but Jamie's delivery and simultaneous wordliness and innocence is charming beyond all of his ilk. Yet that's just the issue - there really isn't anyone like Jamie T, effortlessly making you dance and still dragging you into his songs and the world around them.

Absolute stand-out track 'Calm Down Dearest' is the culmination of his talents, armed only with an acoustic bass guitar (the format all his live shows currently take) his boisterous and danceable verses lead into the most glorious, life-affirming and yet introvertedly sad chorus, that you'll find yourself singing for hours afterwards. The two-thirds empty 100 Club feels like a stadium filled with people in awe and at the same time as if you're sitting next to him in your bedroom.

Telling stories was the musical way of the 60s, the reason folk existed - but they were never this real. To call Jamie's music vital would be clichéd and paint him in a punk-rock light, but the truth is that once you've heard him, you'll be hard-pressed to listen to anything else.