Album Review: Stranger Things Have Happened by Clare Maguire

The commercial shine of 2011’s Light After Dark has tarnished over time with the revelation that the singer-songwriter was deeply unhappy with the musical direction that drove its success. That it’s taken her over half a decade to release her second album speaks volumes. It’s a more raw, but somehow warmer, set that shows why that first pairing with the brilliant pop producer Fraser T Smith ultimately proved so painful.

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At the turn of the decade, Clare Maguire was loudly touted as the heir to Amy Winehouse and Adele, and courted by the likes of Jay Z and Rick Rubin. Her debut album, however, turned out to be a collection of characterless power ballads, and the buzz faded. Now she has returned with the record she probably should have made in the first place: a collection of classy, retro pop that showcases her chameleonic voice.

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Those with good memories might remember Clare Maguire from the new artist tipping season circa 2010-11, where the lungy Birmingham singer was marketed as a cut-price Florence Welch. Epic fail: bad reviews and so-so chart placings followed. Maguire turned to drink. After rehab, a change of label and adoption by the fashion set, she has gone back to basics, with a set of retro-inspired songs that don’t, frankly, refashion the wheel, but boast a certain tremulous, lived-and-loved appeal.

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