Eliza Doolittle

Pack Up

Release date: TBC Label: Parlophone

Informed by the stresses of modern city life, teenage aggro, classic pop, old soul and the appeal of simple, strong melodies built from clanking percussion and jazzy licks, 21 year old Eliza Doolittle’s eponymous debut album is bursting at the seams with life and enthusiasm and vigour - just like its creator.

Raised in Camden, north London by a piano-playing dad and singing mum, Eliza’s been writing songs since she was 12, her precocious talent landing her a publishing deal at 16. Gradually her songs began to flower into the magical blooms they are today – gorgeous pop songs which mine sounds from the 60’s and 70’s while managing to sound indisputably fresh.

‘Eliza Doolittle’ marries breezily beautiful melodies and witty, erudite lyrics with a delightfully off-kilter twist and a knack for a killer hook. Debut single ‘Skinny Genes’ sets out the stall perfectly, summoning to mind lost songs from the Motown era by the Marvelettes or The Supremes, complete with infectious whistling. New single ‘Pack Up’ boldly raids the chorus of the George Henry Powell marching song ‘Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag’ and repurposes it to startling effect, creating a gorgeous dance-hall ode to the joys of being the eternal optimist, and ‘Money Box’ is a beautifully orchestrated rant against senseless materialism, with Doolittle touchingly insisting she won’t be “down with no pound…all I need’s right here, right here with you my dear”.

On the sublime ‘Back To Front’ Doolittle imagines life travelling backwards so “we can learn to laugh again, like when we were children.” ‘Police Car’ has a more nighttime vibe, a downtempo lament swaddled in melancholy woodwind in which the teardrop in Eliza’s remarkable voice is to the fore.

“Compared to the greatest people I see, I’m just me”, she muses aloud on ‘Nobody’, another outstanding track on the album. She needn’t worry; if her first album is anything to go by, she’s certainly got the intelligence, talent and the exceptional pop nous to go far.

Track listing:

1. Analog People In A Digital World Mix
2. Analog People In A Digital World Dub
3. Riva Starr Mix
4. Riva Starr Dub Mix
5. Royal Palms Mix