Mabel’s debut album, ‘High Expectations’: a record - and a state-of-mind, in many ways - that she has worked towards her whole life (even getting the title tattooed phonetically on her neck when she first thought of it two years ago, knowing firmly that it would never change). Still aged just 23 years old, the twice-Brit-nominated artist has already sold over 3.5 million singles in the UK (three platinum, three gold, and two silver), surpassed 1 billion streams, and sold out the likes of Brixton Academy. Across her formative singles and first long-form project, ‘Ivy To Roses’ (which also went silver), Mabel has written with startling candour on young love, identity, girl power, and mental health - topics which are taken to greater heights on ‘High Expectations’. And on that road to her first record, Mabel’s music has become a soundtrack – for her impassioned young female fanbase, but also for herself – on how to turn those vulnerabilities into your advantages. ‘Talking about it really does give you a kind of confidence,’” Mabel says now, “and that’s new for me. If you’re really going to make a record that talks to people you have to sit and pick at old wounds – put everything under a microscope. I would’ve loved that from my heroes when I was kid. That dream of pop stars having a perfect life has gone for our generation.” Stripping away music’s artifice while keeping true to its giddiness and excitement is Mabel’s special gift. Out of some troubling times she has fashioned a sensational, fizzing debut record, a blue-chip British album which can sit proudly on a global stage next to The Weeknd, Ariana, Drake and whatever Queens B and R have in mind for their 2019. In mood, if not exactly in sound, it has some of the complete realisation of early TLC or Aaliyah, had they spent their teenage years in Sweden, Malaga, or the backstreets of West London. The calling card of ‘High Expectations’ is the brusque, street charm that hides in plain sight among its hooky gloss, and anchors the album’s core theme of expectations (those as a woman; of love; of others; and ultimately of yourself). “I want to send a positive message to everyone that’s going to listen to it. I’ve gained so much confidence from writing this album and that’s what I want people to take away.”
