Let´s cut to the chase at once; Helena Jesele and her debut album “Sweet Sticky Fix” is a great new discovery – and I´ll think you´ll be hearing a lot from her this year.

Think the Lana Del Rey sound stripped down a few layers and added sharper trip hop beats – in a 60s/early 70s spy movie with a bossa nova soundtrack produced by David Axelrod.

Helena Jesele explains who she is perfect on her twitter profile;  Manchester born, Dublin raised singer and song-writer. Six foot-tall, full of Irish spirit, Loves New York soul (end quote). Probably the best and most on-point self description I´ve seen in a while

As you can understand, Helena Jesele has it all;

The Look:
The 60s chick – or dare I say chic – look! Huge deer-like blue eyes, black make-up, the pouting mouth, smoking a cigarette, the 60s haircut and black, classic-cut dress.

The music:
La-la background vocals, female and sometimes male. funky/jazzy drumming, a great horn section, heavy on strings. Guitar with a lot of soundtrack influence.

Her voice:
She sounds like Lana Del Rey, Dusty Springfield and Amy Winehouse is having a meeting with Sarah Cracknell (of Saint Etienne fame) and Roisin Murphy (of Moloko fame) – in a french inspired swinging London boardwalk cafe.

The album sleeve:
A simple – black and white photo of Helena Jesele walking barefooted with her shoes in her hand while glimpsing at the camera with a pouting mouth.  Her name is written in a Dymo-label maker style font on a black label – and the albums title in the same, but on a red label. You have probably seen a lot of those look-a-like pictures on Instagram where there is used the black-and-white filter – and the label app Labelbox to create a similar look. Great and highly recognizable! You and I could make a album cover like this any day on our smart phones! Simple and effective. I like it a lot.

This whole package is:
Funky, soulful and sexy smooth. Perfect music and songs when we say goodbye to the winter and welcomes the fall and upcoming summer. I can gladly see myself on the frontporch with a funky 70s cup full of black coffee while the birds sing and I watch the trees bloom.

This was about it, while writing this my cup of tea has gotten cold – and need to be heated up again.

I push play once more and let myself dream away to the sound of Helena Jesele, who could become one of the biggest female soulful singer-songwriter names this year.

I just say; Lana Del Rey watch your back!