The highly impressive debut from Manchester's Lonelady sees her make her own mark on the post-punk music she's influenced by. Fans of The Fall, Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen: take note.
She has all the hallmarks of a potentially fascinating character, but all too often are we left with baited breath only for our expectations to fall flatter than Jedward's quiffs on a bad hair day. Yet the young Julie Campbell, aka Lonelady, seems to tick all the boxes: plucked from the bosom of a city with possibly the richest musical heritage ever, an impressive list of influences, signed to a label renowned for its quality (Warp), with a debut album recorded in a self-built studio in a derelict Mancunian mill - what could possibly go wrong?
Very little, in actual fact. 'Nerve Up' is a hugely impressive debut from Campbell, particularly if you're a fan of that distinctive '80s post-punk sound. This may be an album with a certain steady tone, but there's enough variation within its ten tracks to keep you engrossed. 'Intuition' is an early highlight, a tune that splices Talking Heads with Talk Talk and adds a dollop of PJ Harvey-esque feistiness in for good measure. 'Early the Haste Comes' has echoes of The Fall's frantic off-kilter rattle, 'Immaterial''s steely acoustic bassline sounds like Echo and the Bunnymen in parts, and all the while, Campbell's soulful quiver (akin to Beth Ditto, at times) sounds at odds with the repetitive nature of the sound she's pursuing - most impressively on stripped-back closer 'Fear No More'.
It's true that Lonelady is an artist that's informed by her influences: but when those influences are of such superior quality, that can only be a good thing. With 'Nerve Up', the Mancunian has dragged the music she obviously loves into the 21st century, kicked down the door of the UK's music scene and stamped her mark on it with a very fine debut.
