Former singer with Sheffield cult indie heroes Standard Fare, in collaboration with Hefner man Darren Hayman in the Hayman Kupa Band, and in indie fizzbomb purveyors Mammoth Penguins, Emma Kupa has been absent from our ears over the past few years in her solo incarnation.
Thankfully that gap in our musical lives is about to be filled, as Emma releases her first full-length set under her own moniker this September.
We reviewed the first single to be taken from the forthcoming album, “Nothing At All”, in these pages, and a lovely, raw, bold, folksy treat we found it, too.
Now Emma has shared the video for second single “Hey Love”: watch below. It’s a naked look at a true relationship as lived out there in the real world: the everyday, the little compromises of life. Emma is filmed straight to camera, against 70s’ wallpaper, singing to her lover: “Hey love … / If you think it’s got boring / Just say love / And we’ll do something different.”
It’s a simple but powerfully universal sentiment of a shared life in the actual, delivered in Emma’s unadorned and charming tones, all beautifully restrained vocal power; sparse violin and cello backing are all that she needs to convey this little fragment of beauty. The ‘kitchen sink’ lyrics bring to mind an Alan Sillitoe short story lent melody.
She resolves to the little tendernesses: “Hey love / It’s all in the morning / When we wake up / To each other’s warmth”. Awww. A spontaneous hug of a song.
The LP, It Will Come Easier, her first solo offering since 2015’s Home Cinema EP, promises “raw and, at times, tender songs”: a perfect fit for her voice, then. And it looks like it will set a similarly warming musical path to some of collaborator Darren Hayman’s recent outings, bringing an indiepop sweetness to folksier textures.
It Will Come Easier is due to be released on September 18th via Palo Santo in the States, and Fika Recordings in Britain and Europe. You can place an order here.
