Sophie Ellis-Bextor

Before the solo albums, Ellis-Bextor sang with theaudience and then reached a much wider dance audience through Spiller’s Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love). The move makes more musical sense than it first appears. A distinctive vocal character can change setting without losing its identity, and her phrasing gives a clean melodic line a particular elegance.

Read My Lips arrived in 2001, with Take Me Home and Murder on the Dancefloor establishing the solo sound. The arrangements draw on disco and electronic pop while leaving the voice clearly in view. Murder on the Dancefloor is especially effective because the performance does not need to compete with the groove. The small changes in emphasis keep the song moving as surely as the rhythm section does.

Shoot from the Hip followed in 2003, bringing Mixed Up World and I Won’t Change You into the catalogue. Trip the Light Fantastic in 2007 extended the range through songs including Catch You and Me and My Imagination. Later records explored further stylistic changes, including the more reflective, orchestral setting of Wanderlust. Those albums make it worth resisting a one-song account of her work. The dance singles remain excellent points of entry, but they belong to a singer with an adaptable musical perspective. The early solo recordings preserve a particularly elegant strand of 2000s pop: precise production, memorable melodic writing and a voice confident enough to leave some of the emotional work to the space around it.