Sophie Ellis-Bextor launches album at intimate London gig
By Sam Rigby
Sophie Ellis-Bextor launched her new album Wanderlust at an intimate London gig last night (January 21).
The singer took to the stage to showcase her fifth studio album at Bush Hall in Shepherd’s Bush, where she performed songs both old and new.
Comparing her new collection to the “soundtrack of an Eastern European film from the ’70s”, Ellis-Bextor worked her way through all but one of her Wanderlust tracks during the first hour of the show.
Until The Stars Collide and next single Runaway Daydreamer proved to be the early highlights, while last year’s Young Blood gave us the night’s most heartfelt performance.
Wanderlust is an eclectic and often surprising record, which the singer intended to be more “live-sounding” than her previous efforts. It’s no surprise, then, that Wanderlust really came to life during last night’s show, which has made us listen to the album with new ears this morning.
As promised earlier in the evening, Sophie brought the disco to Shepherd’s Bush in her encore, which kicked off with her Freemasons collaboration Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer).
An incredible medley of Get Over You, Groovejet, Modjo’s Lady (Hear Me Tonight) and Moloko’s Sing It Back went down a storm, before she moved on to Murder on the Dancefloor.
But that wasn’t the end of the evening, as Sophie made her way through the audience to the back of the venue to perform a brief a cappella rendition of new track Interlude. It was one of the most unusual climaxes to a concert we’ve seen in a while, but provided magical way to bring the night to a close.
Sophie confirmed that she fully intends to make another dance album in the future. This makes us very happy, but the revelation of last night was that she doesn’t necessarily need to.
Sophie’s setlist was as follows:
Birth Of An Empire
Until The Stars Collide
Runaway Daydreamer
The Deer And The Wolf
Young Blood
When The Storm Has Blown Over
13 Little Dolls
Wrong Side Of The Sun
Love Is A Camera
Cry To The Beat Of The Band
Encore
Heartbreak (Make Me A Dancer)
Get Over You/Groovejet/Lady (Hear Me Tonight)/Sing It Back Medley
Murder On The Dancefloor
Interlude