Fran Rodgers
I Fell To You Under Winter Sun

Having spent the best part of the decade drowning in a sea of Rice and Blunt, the pendulum of saturation for the genre of singer/songwriters has swung towards the clichéd London street-cred wannabes. Caroline's not the victim, we are. Remi bleedin' Nicole indeed...

Thankfully, there's always someone waiting in the wings to bring a bit of clarity to the party, and add a touch of class (thank God). Today, that honour falls on the shoulders of Leeds-based Fran Rodgers. Maybe her upbringing in the less-than-salubrious setting of Mansfield and its surrounding villages has kept her feet firmly on the ground?

Whatever – roots aren’t important in this instance. Her style may not be a million miles from doyens of the past, such as Dylan or Drake, but the impression left feels wholly new. Rodgers’ whimsical folk offerings, on both the title track and its accompanying b-side 'She Dwelt Among Th'untrodden Ways', aren't that different from the likes of Joanna Newsom, bar the instrumentation (Rodgers prefers the simple chord structures of an acoustic guitar) and silly voice.

Sure, there may be hundreds of others doing something similar in the backroom of a local near you, but for now 'I Fell To You Under Winter Sun' sounds like a refreshing afternoon respite where anyone caught rhyming ‘bitter’ with ‘fitter’ would be sent bound and gagged down the nearest pothole to have their mouths washed out with sewage. There's a lesson to be learnt there folks, really...