Tom King

Tom King may only be 19-years-old, but with his sky-scraping, soul-drenched voice paired with heart-bursting anthems to lost love, the Gen Z-er already looks set to be Britain’s next rising talent. His first low-key releases – billed by Wonderland as “changing the face of Sad-Pop” – channel the lyrical sensitivity of Adele and Sam Smith, with a dash of Florence Welsh’s theatricality, while retaining a healthy amount of teenage angst. His innate ability to connect with a wide audience was there from the start, with his independently released debut, “Why Are You Here?”, and his acoustic-leaning follow-up, “Be That For Me”.

Then came lockdown, and Tom now had the time to sit with and process some personal heartache in the form of his first break-up, which led him to pour his feelings into his music. The EP alchemises this specific event into instantly relatable hymns. It also unfurls like the various stages of grief, with the tender Hollow (“you still don't care after all we shared”) about the immediate after-effects. “It's about how I felt when I found out. Betrayed.” The atmospheric, beat-driven Freedom, meanwhile, is written from a distance “after I'd had my hissy fit and gotten over it.” The lyric “I tried to burn our bridges down” is about trying to exit this relationship that was making me upset.” The decadent-sounding Honest is from a place of newly found confidence, looking back at a challenging situation with all the power and maturity that comes with time.