I have been waiting for this moment for about a year. Maybe two, I can’t remember but I don’t care anyway. I can now listen to Bebe Black whilst doing the ‘sorrowful look out of the bus window’ pose or the determined walk along the mean streets of Liverpool depending on my current state of mind.

‘I’ll Wait’ is a cracker of a song which begins with the most paradoxical piano you’ve ever heard. If a piano can be a paradox, that is. The lyrics are full of the foundations of human resilience. It’s the desperation and the clamour for strength at the heart of any failing relationship.

‘The Black Lion Sessions’ also includes ’Deathwish’, which sounds like an odd mix between Florence Welch and La Roux. It’s not particularly my cup of tea but thousands will love it. Bebe’s songs are very autobiographical- they’re a telling sign of personal sacrifice, trials and tribulations and the fact that they’ve bloody paid off.

The E.P’s title, ‘The Black Lion Sessions’, seems to hint towards the idea that she’s found the lion within herself and is facing her fears and anxieties head on. I think it’s a powerful line to tow for a first E.P and it seems to have worked as seeing as she’s just recently collaborated with Benga.

Download Bebe Black’s The Black Lion Sessions for free from her website

Photograph courtesy of Andrew Whiles