Laura Mvula is older, wiser, still dreaming

Laura Mvula’s new album is about much more than her recent breakup, writes Ed Power

LAURA Mvula’s new album, The Dreaming Room, is a wrenching chronicling of heartache, anxiety, and despair. That’s the record company sales pitch at any rate. Come for the experimental pop, stay for the bottomless angst.

But it is interesting that the British singer — intensely hyped since 2013, despite her unapologetically avant-garde sound — doesn’t see things in quite such dramatic terms. Yes, she found success to be moderately overwhelming and it was of course painful to go through a divorce as her career was taking off. However, she refuses to be defined by her setbacks — or to let them guide her as a musician. The Dreaming Room is about a lot of things. What it definitely isn’t is a stereotypical break-up LP.