Rae Morris: Unguarded review – an endearing new-agey pop debut

There’s a cohort of people born in the 1990s to whom Coldplay’s serene sentimentality remains undiminished by the passage of time. Rae Morris is one of them. With producers Ariel Rechtshaid, Jim Eliot and Fryars, she’s made a kind of new-age Rush of Blood to the Head that might pique the attention of the Twilight-loving Ellie Goulding teen market. It’s also the sort of album that ought to do well given the current appetite for melancholy balladeers – though Morris is far more interesting than male counterparts such as Tom Odell or Ben Howard. There’s an elasticity to her vocal range and a wise worldliness that, at times, evokes Enya, enhanced by Unguarded’s cavernous, experimental production. Comparisons to Enya, Coldplay and Goulding may bring out a rash of snobbery in some, but the absence of cynicism and self-consciousness make this an endearing debut.