Gig review: Emmy the Great

“THERE was always one thing in life you could rely on,” bemoaned Emma-Lee Moss in her clotted cream and jam Home Counties accent, “and that was, you were never more than half an hour from an episode of Friends.” This crowd-pleasing observation came before what proved to be her final song, a called-for acoustic version of Canopies & Grapes, and it nicely encapsulated the mood of her show. Moss’ fans, it seems, favour gentle reliability laced with threads of sharp humour, and that’s what she delivered here at least as capably as Ross, Rachel and co.

The Hong Kong-born 27-year-old’s recent second album Virtue is no doubt the first ever to be written about the singer’s fiancée leaving them for God (a true story, sadly for Moss, although she now dates Ash singer Tim Wheeler), and it translated to the live stage with ease. The pretty singer was warm, cheerful and slightly detached, much like a gentle voice which was unshowy but emotive on tracks like Dinosaur Sex and Iris, foregoing the reedy twang of country or folk influences to create a smooth and contemporary air.

On the rare occasions her songs didn’t measure up to their assured, fragile vocal, Moss’ full-band sound threatened drabness. Yet there were more moments of understated beauty: the shining Exit Night; First Love’s take on Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah; the emotive confessional of Trellick Tower (“now I’m praying for this pain to clear / he’s waiting on ascension”). Like Snow Patrol – whose Gary Lightbody she used to listen to DJing in the nearby Brel Bar when she was at university – she writes songs whose appeal should stretch far and wide.