Maverick Sabre “No One”/ “Video Games x Heaven (Lana Del Rey x Emeli Sande Cover)”
We know it’s been said in every blog post or review mentioning 21-year-old London-born/ Ireland-raised newcomer Maverick Sabre, but still, it’s something that must be repeated: What an odd little voice this dude has!
Cue the eye-rolling music crit math: Sabre’s nasally, near-spoof-of-funk-vocalists croak sounds as if Mike Posner and Amy Winehouse had a baby (alongside siblings Daniel Merriweather, Plan B and Eamon) who grew up listening to nothing but Cee-Lo and Cameo records (in our minds, his first word was probably a Larry Blackmon-like “Owww!”); as annoying as this combination may sound on paper, it somehow works really well in execution, especially when pushing out self-penned diary page confessionals smothered in vintage soul-sampling productions, a style that’s already earned him a couple UK/ Ireland Top 40 hits in the Isaac Hayes/ Portishead-referencing “Let Me Go” and mournful ballad “I Need”.
With its sharp retro bop and woeful, though slightly basic, account of dealing with an unfaithful lover (“No one else could dry these tears/ You left me broken, nothing more to give/ When I kiss you on your cheating lips/ All I ever picture is you with him”), Sabre’s new single “No One” definitely sounds almost too similar to so much of Winehouse’s Back To Black and Plan B’s The Defamation of Strickland Banks, but that just means it’ll likely end up another chart winner for the singer, the combination of its yesteryear-focused groove and Mav’s strange performance style managing to nestle in the ear-holes with a comforting ease.
Peep the video for the track below, then catch Mav’s pretty damn badass live Live Lounge mash-up of Lana Del Rey’s “Video Games” and Emeli Sande’s “Heaven”.
Single from Maverick’s newly dropped debut album Lonely Are The Brave.
(DL)
