Today's Pick

I have always secretly loved soulful relaxing music, especially when you need to wind down after a hard and stressful day, so to come across Sarah Joyce, takes the stage name Rumer, was a real treat. Now honestly, I don't tend to follow this kind of music or keep up to date with the latest newcomers unless they're played constantly everywhere I go but this one got my attention. Going from undiscovered musician to one of the most critically acclaimed artists on the music scene 2010 is definitely Rumer's year and she is the one of the most lushious voice's to grace the charts of late has to be one of our one's to watch.
With the follow up the huge success of her debut single "Slow," British newcomer Rumer is causing quite a stir in the UK with a new video for her the bittersweet and deeply soulful follow up single "Aretha," the second single from jazz-pop singer-songwriter Rumer's debut album, "Seasons of My Soul." Behind Rumer's great voice is a significant amount of emotional depth. Lyrically, the album resonates with several key moments from her life: from her parents' painful separation to the time Rumer spent living in a caravan to be near her dying mother, via a decade spent slogging away on the acoustic scene, working as everything from a pot-washer to a popcorn-seller.
"Aretha" is very light and melodic and the lyrics are truly inspiring. It showcases Rumer's extraordinary vocal capabilities far better than the previous single, which is quite a feat. The classic, soulful pop tune is Rumer's cry for help from the one of her musical hero's Aretha Franklin, who she felt was the only person she could turn to when she wrote this song and her mother was going through her own hard times at home. It finds the singer interweaves her relationship with her mother into the tale of a girl seeking solace in Aretha Franklin. As chilled and mellow as "Slow" with a lighter more bouncy feel about it, we think that "Aretha" feels like the musical equivalent of a good old hug. Rumer's debut, then, is a sometimes dark but ultimately uplifting record, made around the time that her luck began to turn.
The Anglo-Pakistani singer was asked to what extent her songs are autobiographical. She replied: "Oh, I think they all are. Sometimes fiction tells a story better than the truth. So a lot of them are stories, but they're stories that are embedded in the truth. 'Aretha,' for example, is a story, but there are loads of true elements in it. And I think it tells a lot of people's stories." Rumer explained why she chose to sing about Aretha Franklin: "She's the Queen of Soul! If you're going to write about somebody who embodies the spirit of music itself you go to the top of the list - and there she is! Her voice is probably the closest you get to God. There's an incredible amount of passion and heartbreak in her voice as she's lost a lot of family members. She's just got something in her voice that puts her at the top of the tree and there's no negotiation."