Chlöe Howl - The Scala, London 25/09/14

Three years down the line and with a shortlist nomination for BRITs Critic’s Choice Award 2014 to her name, Howl is handing out pizza to queuing fans ahead of her headline show at London’s Scala. She’s barely older than most of them, and this is to her advantage; her bolshy lyrical tales of young crushes and playground gossip ring true for her audience. Yet, aged 19 and fresh from a European arena tour supporting Ellie Goulding, Howl tonight delivered a dynamic and clean-cut performance, proving herself to be experienced beyond her years,

The singer-songwriter opened the set with “Bad Dream”, twisting and serpentine as she sang, before unhooking the mic and sauntering from side to side across the stage to the anthemic backdrop of latest single “Disappointed”. By the opening arcade game buzz of “Paper Heart”, Howl, whose in-ear monitors were now draped around her shoulders, such was her on-stage energy, had the audience throwing shapes to the break-up song’s irreverent beats.

It’s slow-burning tracks like “Tomorrow’s Far Away” that sort the pop stars from the one-hit corporate upstarts, and it’s testament to Howl’s talent as both an artist and performer that the intensity of the show does not drop with the music’s tempo. Instead, Howl rejoined the mic stand and allowed the force of her voice alone to carry the energy of the set.

Her age puts the singer in peril of being labelled ‘teen pop’. Listen to the lyrics and you’ll see why Howl has not trodden the Disney-soundtrack route of her contemporaries. If Hannah Montana contained the “Rumour” lyric “When she turned thirteen she went astray/With her brother’s dealer, so they say”, or the line “Fuck your no strings... kinda hope I have twins”, the kiss-and-make-up rom-com may have turned out rather differently. “Girls and Boys”, the frank account of a teenage party (“Broken teeth, dancing in the shattered glass”), and the blunt disillusionment of “Drop In The Ocean” (“This heartache and devotion is just a drop in the ocean”) mark a much-needed candour in pop music that, judging by their animated singing, Howl’s audience appreciate.

This plain-spoken attitude comes across as much in Chlöe Howl’s stage presence as it does in her lyrics. Her impish face – wide eyes, pouting lips and dimpled cheeks – is charming and expressive, her coquettish slouch and insolent gestures drawing the brazen sarcasm from guitar-led ballad “This Song’s Not About You”.

The 19 year old answered fervent calls for an encore with her cover of “Señorita”, a tambourine and flamenco shaker twist on Justin Timberlake’s R&B number. “Rumour”, released last year as Howl’s debut single, closed the set, the singer rallying the crowd into a wholehearted chorus with the command, “I want the people in the next room to be like, ‘What the fuck’s going on?’”.

Chlöe Howl’s sharp-edged pop is an antidote to whiny break up songs and syrupy odes to fairy tale love. For Hannah Montana’s “He Could Be The One” there’s Howl’s “No Strings”, for Selena Gomez’s “Love You Like A Love Song” the arrant “This Song’s Not About You”. In her live performance at Scala, the precocious singer’s tell-it-how-it-is openness and unequivocal manner served only to amplify the arresting force of her music.

Setlist

Bad Dream
Disappointed
Paper Heart
Tomorrow’s Far Away
Girls and Boys
Down Town
Drop In the Ocean
No Strings
Takes Me A Long Time
This Song’s Not About You
----------
Señorita (Justin Timberlake cover)
Rumour

• Photo by Gaëlle Beri. See the full gallery here.