What to buy: His EP is released on 2 February by Glassnote.įile next to: Rhodes, Hozier, James Bay, Antony Hegarty. Over stark piano chords, he huskily paints the nocturnal scene: “Jeff Buckley’s Grace was playing loud as hell in the back of an old dive bar/ So I step outside and light a cigarette, take in the fumes of a passing car/ Loud angry drunks and a few crust punks fill every crevice of St Marks …” In fact, Miller probably wouldn’t be doing what he’s doing if Buckley hadn’t issued that album in 1994.The song gets quite corny as Miller cries out “for something true”, but as the strings rise and the tumult increases, you will be quite moved, just as you will be swept along with the wave of acclaim that is surely coming Miller’s way. Midnight achieves what generations of aspirant songwriters have dreamed of doing: it poeticises the New York city streets. And he’s good with technology: he recorded his first song, Hold the Phone, on his iPhone, and that drew attention to his voice, while Midnight proved he could write. It probably helps that he’s not pug-ugly. He gives good quaver (not the cheese-based snack, the vocal tremble), which can’t help but denote passion, and people seem to be lapping that up right now. “I think that’s something that’s been hard-wired into me,” said the 19-year-old, an avowed Ray Charles and Otis Redding fan, of his music’s hymnal cadences and his ardent singing style. But there’s a real take-me-to-church quality to his tone: you can imagine his paymasters at Glassnote, the label (also home to Mumford & Sons, Chvrches, Childish Gambino, Phoenix) to which he’s just signed, relishing the look of horror on Hozier’s face when he hears there’s a new kid in town with a voice like a ravaged choirboy. Actually, troubadour suggests a guitar-slinger when he’s more of a piano man. But it’s not all Brit boys, because here comes Tor Miller from New York, reclaiming what is essentially an American invention: the lovelorn troubadour possessed of gospel fervour.
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