Listen: MNEK - "Wrote A Song About You"

It’s a statement of intent if ever you’ve heard one. What begins as a late 90s/early 00s RnB track in the vein of Craig David et al., with MNEK crooning over soft pianos and that twinkling guitar plucking that you can find on pretty much any track from Justin Timberlake’s Justified, erupts into a real house banger, with synths bubbling and beats jumping. It’s an odd transition - from crooner to party smash - but MNEK’s frankly wonderful vocals (which are always the highlight of any song he lends them to) lead you through the very same “strange melody” he’s singing about.

MNEK is like a pop factory with some secret ingredient locked away, a formula to create the perfect pop tune. Everything he touches feels fresh, fun and, more often than not, funky as hell. He ties genres together with such ease and creates the kind of infectious pop tunes that makes even the most ardent pop hater reconsider their ridiculous positions (seriously, how can anyone really hate pop)? “Wrote A Song About You” is the fine example of this, a microcosm of his endless talents, and a sign that MNEK doesn’t look like he’s going to stop climbing higher any time soon.

Live:
2 June – Glastonbury Festival, Somerset
3 July – House Festival, London
11 July – Wakestock, North Wales
11 July – T In The Park, Kinross
18 July - Lovebox, London
18 July – Somerset House Summer Series, London
19 July - Lattitude, Suffolk
29 August – Bingley Music Live, Bingley
6 September – Bestival, Isle Of Wight