The Singles Jukebox

The everpresent house revival claims another singer-songwriter…

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Alfred Soto: The Brit house revival seems to have stalled, but Izzy Bizu cares not a whit. She shows her chops when the keyboards slow down to play supper club piano chords, which is when I look for other Brit house revival fast ones.
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Thomas Inskeep: Adult Top 40/Radio 2 fodder that clearly wants to hit as many constituencies as inoffensively as possible, akin to Sam Smith (for whom Bizu has opened). It’s lightly housey, it’s piano-pop, it’s swirly, it’s dull, it’s ultimately nothing. 
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Micha Cavaseno: “White Tiger” is not so much a song but an Izzy Bizu Showcase Special for interested parties. It’s her equivalent of Neill Blomkamp’s early shorts: a statement of what she can offer traditional pop producers or house-leaning whiz-kids, while providing as little meat to her effort as possible. Even the stylistic switches — the acoustic piano bashing out those house-style chord riffs, the occasional spritzings of electronics, that little attempt at soul-rock on the second verse — come off as a sales pitch, but a very lovely presentation. If she’s taken seriously for the charms of her voice, we’ll probably see exactly what she’s capable of.
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Scott Mildenhall: This could not be more BBC if it tried: purposefully palatable soul marketable to Radio 1, 2 and 1xtra. Izzy Bizu has already been on Jools Holland, and if she proves more Smith than Kiwanuka, she could be looking at a spot on the BBC Music Awards come December (should they persist). A good path to that would be this, or the few memorable bits of this, getting a spot in some summertime booze advert based around making park drinking look respectable. The sound of a fictionalised middle-class summer.
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Megan Harrington: The best day to go to the beach is always the hottest. There’s nothing refreshing about submerging your body in public waters on a day that’s simply warm, even hot — it must be burning. “White Tiger” taken for its title alone conjures the feeling of the sun so close to Earth that breathing becomes melting; Izzy Bizu is that foamy surf, sweeping you up and temporarily giving you leave of your corporeal world. Something ferocious is implied, but what Bizu delivers is light and lovely. 
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Brad Shoup: She’s got that Colbie Caillat thing where she’s come out of a reverie to share a secret, but it turns out that secret is the fragrance line she’s dropping. Wonderful feel on the piano though.
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Dorian Sinclair: I’m very fond of that jangly upright-piano sound, and Bizu’s vocal delivery has a creak and a swing I find appealing. They make “White Tiger” a fairly enjoyable listen, but unfortunately there’s not much else to push it up to being a memorable one.
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Josh Winters: Unlike “Lean & Bop,” which seamlessly married two adjacent genres, “White Tiger” feels disjointed in how it tries to balance its influences of smoky torch songs and sunny pop-house, like trying to fit two puzzle pieces from two different sets. Bizu’s soaring whistle is the glue that holds it all together, but you get the sense that she’s not entirely sure what she wants the song to be.
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David Sheffieck: Never quite takes off, but it’s able to engage regardless: looser than it needs to be and more supple than it initially appears, there’s unexpected strength here, a foundation worth building on.
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Katherine St Asaph: So many dance tracks treat their vocals/vocalists as afterthoughts that it’s a relief to hear one so clearly a showcase for the voice, albeit one over-reminiscent of Corinne Bailey Rae. Bizu is game and more, but the balance is off; the track’s barely a shack let alone house, and it can’t decide whether it’s sunny or dangerous.
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Alex Ostroff: “Restrained” and “polite” aren’t the same thing, and the current chosen crop of the BBC need to sit down with Jessie Ware’s records until they can tell the difference. Judicious restraint lets singers yearn under the surface and creates heightened contrast when they finally let loose. Bizu has a nice voice and the track has some lovely dinner-club disco moments, but this Tiger is a tad too timid. Also, can a song really be the Sound of 2016 if it was first released in 2013?
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