Control
'Control' is a collection of brooding, expertly-crafted alternative pop songs, from an artist and producer who has already earned fans as diverse as London Grammar to Childish Gambino (and over 3 million Soundcloud plays to boot). For 24-year-old Paul Dixon a.k.a. FYFE, it's a record which may have started as an exercise in tightening one's grip on life, but is effectively about release, and learning that control itself is a fallacy. Written and entirely self-produced by FYFE, 'Control' feels as inspired by the 90s hip-hop beats which characterised Dixon's childhood as the delicate pop of The XX, via the swelling orchestral arrangements of Bjork's 'Volta': all held together by FYFE's near-falsetto vocal croon. A pop record with a working brain and a beating heart, 'Control' is the sound of an artist seizing back the reigns and then letting them go, turning his paint-smeared, back-to-camera to face forwards looking right at you, and into the future.