Review: Delilah "Inside My Love"

Somebody I'm always excited to hear new music from is Paris-born, London-raised, singer Delilah. When I'd read she had covered Minnie Ripperton's classic Inside My Love, I knew it was going to be a goody.

This is a singer-songwriter with previous form when handling covers- having done a stellar job incorporating Chaka Khan's Ain't Nobody, into her song Go [Review]. So I suspected Delilah wasn't going to be doing a simple cut-and-paste job with the Minnie Ripperton original, or using it to show off her range (as I suspect the reason is for many when choosing to cover Minnie).

Review: Delilah brings effortless cool on debut single "Go"

You know no one can come for Chaka Khan vocally, so the only way to cover her music and survive is to attack it from a totally different angle to the way Chaka did -well unless you're Whitney Houston that is. It's a stratagem British talent Deliah opted for on her debut single Go.

The lyrics and the melody are taken from Chaka Khan's classic, Ain't Nobody but they are painted onto a contemporary backing that screams 21st century UK. The production is simplistic, ambient and ultimately cold but Delilah brings human warmth to it with her soft, sweet voice resulting in a hypnotic groove.

So contrasted are the two versions that it took my brain- though it's not really a healthy specimen- a couple of minutes to dredge up the Chaka sample on the track. Chaka Khan herself is said to have called the track "Genius" and I agree!

Rating: 8/10