Jess Glynne - Always in Between

The Guardian 0

The follow-up to Glynne’s ubiquitous debut is generic Top 40 and soul-pop finished to a high standard

There are artists who ascend to stardom in the traditional blaze of publicity and hype, and there are others who, to borrow the old Peter Cook joke, seem to rise without trace. Consider the case of Jess Glynne, who has spent four years becoming one of the country’s biggest stars. She has had seven No 1 singles, more than any other British female artist in history. Her second album, Always in Between, finds itself launched into a chart that her debut has yet to vacate after 163 weeks. Her music has attained the kind of ubiquity you might have thought impossible in a world atomised by personalised playlists and catch-up TV.

Try as you might, you never seem to be that far from the sound of Rather Be, her 2014 collaboration with Clean Bandit, advertising M&S ready meals, or indeed the sound of her imploring you not to be so hard on yourself blaring from a shop PA. Earlier this year, passengers threatened to boycott the budget airline Jet2 for playing her 2015 hit Hold My Hand incessantly as the background music on its planes: “I’ll walk to Portugal next time,” swore one aggrieved punter.

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