When Angela Tini, fiery-voiced RnB Queen, announced her second album, we were beyond delighted. Her 2023 debut, ‘Have You Met Me Yet?’, set the bar so high for roots music, and somehow her followup, ‘Here Comes Trouble’ has smashed it. It’s packed full of all the qualities we love about her music – that magnificent wail, her passion for all things authentic, an all-star band adding vibrance and flair to her every move – and turned it up to eleven. 

We got first track ‘Can’t Stop Me’ as the lead single, and from the second the boogie-woogie piano introduces Tini’s fabulous voice, we’re hooked. It’s a perfect manifesto for the philosophy behind the album: ferociously independent and absolutely classy at the same time, with all the bells, whistles and brass solos that we’d expect from the VLV Friday night headliner. With barely enough time to recover, she released her second single, ‘Not Lonely For You’, and it’s smoother, more sultry, but with the same scorching gloss that we love. After only these two tracks, it’s clear that Tini’s taken her sound to the next level with the help of her amazing band. 

If you’re after love songs with a satisfying backbone, you’re going to get your fix here. Tini’s no fainting flower, and her resolute spirit carries through the twinkling piano and joyful romance of ‘Honey Never Spoils’ and even when her heroines are lovelorn and bluesy in ‘Forty Cups Of Coffee’, we’re still swept away by the atmosphere she creates. That’s the real joy of Tina’s music: close your eyes, and you’re in some jazz club in a smoke cellar in a past era, listening to songs which could resonate from any decade through to ours.

But just when you’re letting yourself drift away into the Tini sound, she throws you a musical curve ball. French jazz in the form of ‘Tout Doucement’? It’s delightfully unexpected and shows that she can ace any genre she puts her mind to. Gorgeous layers of harmonies and dipping a toe into the vocal-group scene on ‘Every Night’? We should have seen it coming given the vocalist’s eclectic tastes, but it’s still a warm and glorious surprise.

She warned us in her recent interview that she was aiming for new heights in her sound, and Tini was absolutely on the ball. ‘Here Comes Trouble’ is a strong, resolute and, above all, passionate album from a vocalist reaching to become their best self. It’s album that reveals more with every listen, one that you could almost live inside, and a welcome return from one of the finest voices in roots music.

Kate Allvey