Lucy Spraggan

By the time Sheffield-raised, Canterbury-born photograph salesperson Lucy Spraggan had received rapturous applause for her performance of the witty, self-penned "Last Night" during an X Factor 2012 audition, the singer/songwriter already had a self-released album to her name. October 2011's Top Room at the Zoo mixed an observational lyrical style inspired by the Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner with a playful, lighthearted vocal delivery that recalled Kate Nash. Once Spraggan's audition had been televised, by early September Zoo had reached number 22 on the U.K. albums chart, while "Last Night" just missed out on the Top Ten of the same week's singles chart. In 2013 she released her sophomore album, Join the Club, and featured a new version of "Last Night (Beer Fear)." She then embarked on a nationwide headline tour to promote the record. She returned in 2015 with her third effort, We Are. The effort received widespread acclaim and was commended for its deeply personal and introspective lyrics. She promoted the album with The Unsinkable Tour. Later that year she announced that she had founded her own label, CTRL Records, which saw its first release with her 2016 EP, Home. The EP included a revised version of the track "Tea & Toast" from the Join the Club album. She started work on her fourth full-length effort later that year, stating that the writing process was more spontaneous than planned. The record, entitled I Hope You Don't Mind Me Writing, saw release in January 2017. ~ James Wilkinson & Rob Wacey