De'Wayne - Stains

It would seem that someone has chucked the ambitiously joyous essence of pop, a handful of rap’s vehemence and a good dose of rock’s styling into a bottle, corked it up along with a mint, and proceeded to shake it until the fizz erupts. Emerging soaked from this experiment into the abundantly ‘Cool’ comes burgeoning star De’Wayne, triumphantly holding aloft ‘Stains’, his debut album.

For the last few years, he’s been cutting his teeth with singles and support slots, and in that time he’s crafted a collection of songs that point a finger at the world, stick another up at love, and beg success for a tussle with a confident swagger.

In case any of that wasn’t abundantly clear, just wait for the war-cry of opener ‘National Anthem’. From then on it’s an all-out race to the top, and hot damn does it seem like De’Wayne’s only gone and done it. There’s a joyous bravado (‘Stains’) amongst elated breakups (‘Perfume’), wrapped around stake-claiming intentions and all without ever letting the energy falter.

It’s a whirlwind ride, and the best bit is you’re completely spotless afterward since De’Wayne is here to clean up, and does so with supreme fever. We’ll have what he’s having.