Ellen Beth Abdi’s new single, Tenterhooks, is a soulful slice of new jazz, luxuriating in its comfortable skin while subtly pushing at genre boundaries. Off-kilter synth lines and chiming piano figures purvey the track, adding texture and intrigue, but it’s Ellen’s beautiful vocal that truly steals the show. Her voice, rich with depth and emotion, winds around the persuasive melodies, pulling you in and holding you there.
Smart, sensual, and effortlessly assured, Tenterhooks plays on the insecurities of modern relationships, capturing that agonizing moment of waiting for a reply, where time feels suspended and self-worth teeters in the balance. As Abdi explains: ‘This a song about the violence of waiting for someone. It’s about the feeling you get after you send ‘that message’. Tenterhooks are the L-shaped hooks from which woollen cloth once hung in the mills of Northern England. Like that fabric, you are suspended. Your life and self-worth in the balance. Waiting for that person to reply’.
Having honed her craft through collaborations with A Certain Ratio and guest spots with New Order, Abdi brings both compositional gravitas and youthful energy to her solo work. Tenterhooks is a striking statement of intent, blending jazz, soul, and electronic elements with a fearless sense of self. With more music on the horizon and a soon-to-be-revealed PRS-funded collaboration, this is just the beginning of an artist truly coming into her own.
Check out Tenterhooks, here
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