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Looking for fresh finds for your music playlist? Johnny Sharp brings you 20 trailblazing sets from standout solo artists as he showcases the emerging talents taking centre stage

While we’ve already touched on the scarcity of new bands in the modern age [HFN Oct ’24], solo artists find themselves in a market that is becoming ever more crowded. That may be why many of the lone operators who’ve managed to break through in the past five years have found new ways to blend genres, put a fresh twist on classic styles, or just grab their audience by the lapels and demand attention.

Most of these solo successes, as it turns out, are also women – perhaps a sign of how the modern musical landscape is evolving. And while many lean towards the poppier side of the spectrum, we’d argue that much of the most innovative and arresting music being made is not only attracting critical acclaim but also achieving chart success and huge streaming numbers.

Sound decisions

We’ve tried to focus on those artists who have risen to prominence in the 2020s, even if they had a few releases before then. Likewise, in several of these cases we could have tossed a coin to decide between our nominated album and another set by the same artist as the entry point to their music, but these days, of course, you can hear anyone’s output at your leisure before investing in any physical product. So let this round-up be the jumping off point for curious listeners to do their own research. And as ever, don’t hesitate to write in with your own nominations for an alternative list – we all love discovering artists who deserve a spot in the limelight.

Beabadoobee
Fake It Flowers
(Dirty Hit, 2020)

The grunge and alt. rock sounds that helped define the early ’90s had rather slipped down the back of the sofa of history by the 2020s. Fortunately, Filipino-English songwriter Beatrice Laus sees no reason to feel self-conscious about drawing on those guitar-heavy sounds for her first long-form statement to the world, even if her girlish voice offsets the riffs with a poppier Avril Lavigne-ish sensibility. Similarly self-lacerating sentiments as found in that era also inform Fake It Flowers as our heroine mines themes of self-harm, bad habits, disastrous haircuts and toxic relationships to strike a resounding neo-slacker chord.

Molly Tuttle
Crooked Tree
(Nonesuch, 2022)

As Americana grows in popularity over in the UK, this Californian’s take on bluegrass has gained a deserved boost in profile since her 2022 Grammy win for this, her third studio album. Listening to her guitar playing alone is a joy, because she’s something of a finger-picking virtuoso, her acoustic tapestries often accompanied on Crooked Tree by her father Kyle Tuttle playing sprightly banjo. But her smoothly emotive voice adds an extra dimension, relating tales of feisty Western heroines on songs such as ‘Side Saddle’ and ‘She’ll Change’, offering an irresistibly fresh take on a timeless musical tradition.

Olivia Rodrigo
Sour
(Geffen, 2021)

After this former child actor broke the Internet at 17 – or at least gave it a serious bruising – with her virally infectious heartbreak anthem ‘Driver’s License’ in 2021, fame after a fashion was guaranteed. But it wasn’t until she followed it with this debut long player that she showed herself to be an artist of real character and a talent to be reckoned with. Alt-rock leaning tirades like ‘Good 4U’ echo Alanis Morissette, while ‘Déjà Vu’ out-Taylors the ubiquitous Ms Swift at times. ‘Brutal’ draws on punk-pop energy, all the while channelling the hugely relatable frustrations of being a teenager both in and out of love.

Arlo Parks
Collapsed In Sunbeams
(Transgressive, 2021)

In the midst of the pandemic came this startling debut album that tapped into the tradition of songwriting as storytelling, with Mercury prize-winning results. While lyrically the young Londoner delves into the dark places that many others experienced during lockdown, Parks’ words are often wreathed in musical arrangements full of unexpected hooks, emotionally resonant melodies and elegant R’n’B and jazz-tinged rhythms.

Olivia Dean
Messy
(EMI, 2023)

When life is chaotic, there’s a lot to be said for a calming voice, and that’s what this young British soul singer offers when tapping into her own troubles. Songs such as ‘The Hardest Part’ succeed through rarely trying too hard to prove themselves beyond their classic simple songcraft. As such, though, they softly but powerfully channel romantic yearning and weary defiance, like a less melodramatic Amy Winehouse without the aspirations to jazz classicism.

Sam Fender
Seventeen Going Under
(Polydor, 2021)

On his second album, the Tyneside songwriter once again draws on gritty source material, ranging from dying parents to punch-ups. Yet the feeling of redemption being achievable through the power of song remains ever present, just as it did for his oft-compared blue-collar antecedent, Bruce Springsteen. These are not traditionalist tunes designed to charm the old guard because a new generation is listening, rewarding Fender with a No 1 album and platinum sales.

J Hus
Beautiful And Brutal Yard
(Black Butter, 2023)

In case you’re not acquainted with ‘afroswing’, let this originator demonstrate. The distinctly London-accented yet melodic blend of grime, hip-hop and R’n’B was pioneered by J Hus and he helped break it into the mainstream with this chart-topping third album. The Drake-featuring ‘Who Told You’ is an impossibly infectious high-point and while the Stratford rapper also catches the ear with lascivious rhymes, he can also take it slow as on the Jorja Smith duet ‘Nice Body’.

Ethel Cain
Preacher’s Daughter
(Daughters Of Cain, 2022)

There’s rarely much crossover between fans of country music and long-form shoegazing noise rock, but this Floridian maverick evidently cares little, as this debut album somehow successfully draws on both traditions. It manages to turn dreampop reveries into hazy arena rock anthems on songs such as ‘American Teenager’, while leaning back towards Lana Del Rey’s neo-gothic torch songs on ‘A House In Nebraska’. An original new songwriting voice with a haunting potency.

Gracie Abrams
The Secret Of Us
(Interscope, 2024)

A familiar face to Taylor Swift fans, who may well have seen this Californian songwriter as an opening act for her in the summer of 2024. Abrams’ one-time label as ‘sad-girl indie’ felt much too reductive to sum up this second album, lit up by defiant acoustic pop charmers such as ‘Risk’ and the singalong ‘Us’ with contributions from Swift. There’s still the recurring feeling that these are bedroom meditations dressed in pop production clothing, but the tunes are incisive nonetheless.

Self Esteem
Prioritise Pleasure
(Fiction, 2021)

After serving an apprenticeship as half of Sheffield indie-folk duo Slow Club, Rebecca Lucy Taylor has reinvented herself in some style as Self Esteem. This follow up to her 2019 debut Compliments Please sees her come of age as a solo artist with a brand of art pop drawing on her own self-lacerating inner monologues as well as more empowered observations on mental health, sexuality, relationships and feminism. Dance with tears in your eyes, or like you’ve never been hurt.

Raye
My 21st Century Blues
(Human Re Sources, 2023)

This South Londoner’s career stalled when she fell out with major label Polydor, but she self-released her debut album and after the hedonistic anthem ‘Escapism’ topped the UK singles charts, this first long player ended up Mercury-nominated. Sales and garlands aside, its journey through a young woman’s world, from body dysmorphia to feckless partners to, well, flaky record labels is soundtracked by a beautifully slick mash-up of house, soul and urban pop.

Nymph
Shygirl
(Because Music, 2022)

The artist born Blane Muise rose to prominence lending her pillowy vocals to other producers’ avant-pop confections, but here she offers enticing creative visions of her own. Warped beats and twisted vocal samples punctuate her entreaties on ‘Come For Me’, before ‘Shlut’ unapologetically expresses lustful intentions to a Kelis-like groove. ‘Heaven’ expresses more sweetly romantic motivations to alluringly unorthodox R’n’B. Resistance is futile.

Loyle Carner
Hugo
(AMF, 2022)

The Croydon rapper was already known for his thoughtful rhymes telling kitchen sink tales of a tough upbringing, but once the Black Lives Matter movement began to make global headlines, he felt compelled to explore themes of race and cultural identity more explicitly on this third album. It’s complicated, though, as ‘Ladas Road’ expresses the difficulty of fitting in as a mixed-race man and ‘Blood On My Nikes’ recalls a murder he witnessed as a teenager. Producer Kwes’s soulful soundscapes add captivating atmospherics to the set as Carner, a new dad at this point, wonders just what kind of world his son will inherit.

Nia Archives
Silence Is Loud
(Island, 2024)

While some dismiss mid-’90s British music as conservative, this Yorkshirewoman has admitted that the era inspired this, her debut album. However, here it’s the genre-splicing textures of the dance music of the time that resurfaces most prominently. The sample-happy ‘Forbidden Feelingz’ recalls jungle music’s urgency and trip-hop’s atmospherics, while ‘Cards On The Table’ welds more traditional acoustic songcraft to clubby beats.

Rina Sawayama
Sawayama
(Dirty Hit, 2020)

After breaking through with a self-titled mini-LP in 2017 that used relatively familiar bubblegum pop styles to illustrate her artistic world as a Japanese girl raised in the UK, this Cambridge-educated model/singer/actress/polymath thickened the aesthetic plot on her full-length debut. The long list of genres referenced in reviews would read like a Spotify menu, but while sometimes her stylistic lurches (from dance-pop to nu-metal to electro-dub to gospel to country) can make for something of a bi-polar listen, it suits the message of a proud ‘pansexual’. This is a vibrant showcase for the multi-cultural magpie approach.

Fred Again
Actual Life 3
(Atlantic, 2022)

This Grammy-winning album cemented British producer Fred Gibson’s reputation as an electronica soundscape architect, as beautifully atmospheric creations evoked a just-before-dawn clubland feeling, where the beat didn’t stop crashing back in, but there was space to take a breath and drink in the evening vistas. Like antecedents Four Tet and Burial, he makes visceral music to make you dance allied to soulful sounds to make you feel.

Ice Spice
Y2K!
(10K Projects, 2024)

For some hip-hop connoisseurs, this New Yorker lacks profundity in her rhymes, but since when did pop music have to be all about weighty philosophical statements? For feisty rap fun, Ice Spice’s Y2K! delivers, despite only clocking in at 23 minutes. Offering braggadocio to burn, she illustrates relationship revenge in advance on ‘Did It First’ and leaves us with puerile but memorable sentiments such as: ‘Bitches be thinking they the s**t, but they ain’t even the fart’.

Chappell Roan
The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess
(Island, 2023)

This Missouri-raised Californian captured the hearts and minds of pop kids across the globe, as tracks from this debut album spread like laughing gas through the streaming platforms. The influences of vintage synth pop as well as drag culture are clearly evident on the sassy pop-rap of ‘Feminomenon’ and hedonistic anthem ‘Red Wine Supernova’ – if Cyndi Lauper had been 40 years younger, this is how she might have ended up sounding.

Megan Thee Stallion
Good News
(1501 Certified, 2020)

The breakout female rap star of the 2020s still hasn’t said it better than on this first album. Anyone can be lascivious and sex positive in their statements, but without the rhyming skills to pay the studio bills, you’ll just sound like a shock merchant. On jams like ‘Body’ and ‘Freaky Girls’, she also has the humour to drive home the feminist sentiments. Guests such as Beyoncé, Da Baby and Big Sean feature too, but she doesn’t need their endorsement to convince.

Holly Humberstone
Paint My Bedroom Black
(Polydor, 2023)

After rising to prominence during the pandemic, this Lincolnshire chanteuse’s first album fit snugly into the
up-next streaming suggestion spots offered to Rodrigo and Swift fans as readily as Phoebe Bridgers fans. That’s thanks to a winningly diaristic lyrical style allied to a self-mocking humour (evident in the album title for a start, even if the screw-the-world sentiments feel real), and classic heartbroken songwriting, dressed up with modern production.