Back in March, I announced that one of the artists I longlisted for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition was JacobNeverhill, who impressed me with his emotionally vulnerable and sophisticated sounding R&B.

At the time, the track I based my judging on wasn’t released. Thankfully Jacob has now released that track, Gold, and I wanted to share it with you. What strikes me with this song is how it combines the delicate sound of the guitar work with Jacob’s vocals to create something that feels beautifully put together. The warm bass notes that ride along beneath the surface of this record to give it a real sense of momentum, and the whole thing comes together to create the sense of being a little bit separate from the humdrum every day reality of the world... It gives you the feeling of being so wrapped up in someone that nothing else feels real any more.

Discussing his inspiration, Jacob talks of the impact of being in love with someone and the experience of just focusing on the good in people:

“I wrote this song about loving someone fighting depression, how over time I learnt every detail about them, all the “dark sides” that they don’t show the rest of the world, but through all of that I only ever saw the “Gold”. It’s a mantra that I want to walk with across all encounters with people: only seeing the Gold. So I’m releasing this song hoping that it can really connect with people dealing with similar issues.”

Mental health is something that touches most of us at one time or another, and I certainly know the experience of both seeing the gold, and hoping others do the same.

Scheduled for release on 24th April

Glastonbury Festival have announced the Longlist for this year’s Emerging Talent Competition. The Longlist is a list of 90 different musical acts who have been selected by a panel of judges from the thousands of acts that entered this year.

I’m one of a panel of 30 judges, made up of online music writers, that helped select the acts who go through to the next round. Each judge is hand selects just three artists, with the overall Longlist of 90 ultimately being further whittled down by the festival organisers to just eight finalists, who will all perform live in next month’s finals.

You can see the full list and listen to a playlist including music from most on the Longlist over on the Glastonbury Festival website.

The three artists I chose were JacobNeverhill, Kudu Blue and Jen Simmonds. I’ve included the track I judged from each band below, together with a very brief description of why they stood out for me.

JacobNevrhill

JacobNeverhill creates emotionally vulnerable R&B with beautiful, sophisticated production that lets the songwriting really shine in a way that has led to crossover success for the likes of Miguel.

The song I judged isn’t currently available publicly but the video below is a great demonstration of what made me think JacobNeverhill’s talent deserved recognition.

Kudu Blue

Kudu Blue blend melancholic vocals with sophisticated and soulful house music to create something that feels undoubtedly modern whilst drawing on three decades of dance music… The result is a little like the xx collaborating with John Talabot, that is to say, excellent.

Jen Simmonds

Jen Simmonds captures a blissful dreamlike state on the spectral yet grungy One In A Million… A shoegaze wall-of-sound that feels like the soundtrack to a time when you have been untethered from your day-to-day reality and instead have become lost in all the things we hold close in our inner lives.