Dodie - Human

The Guardian 60

(Dodie)

What do you want from your stars? Ariana Grande rules pop with her fascinating alchemy of relatable emotion and unearthly self-possession. Dodie, discovered on YouTube rather than Nickelodeon, is far more accessible.

The problem with crowd-funded stardom is that it nudges you into blandness, rough edges sanded off by a constant craving for shares and likes. The Essex 23-year-old’s third EP is frustrating, as it demonstrates perfectly why she’s built a huge following online and why it will be difficult to turn that into anything more substantial. These seven songs are all inoffensive playlist folk-pop, foregrounding personality over polish, but any sense of intrigue is confined to the lyrics.