The ShortListen: Tom Speight (no. 225)

Who? Tom Speight

What’s the story? It's testament to the addictive quality of music that all you need is one hit song and you can win the lottery. Brighton artist Passenger had been plugging away for years before he wrote Let Her Go, which catapulted him into the sales stratosphere: they'll be playing that one on Magic for the next 40 years. London artist Tom Speight has been around for a few years, always producing high quality stuff with the feeling that he just needed that one big song to push into the big league. This song, Little Love, could be the one to do it. He's said that "It was definitely influenced by tracks like [Tracy Chapman's] Fast Car; with the emphasis of keeping everything very simple and direct" and that's exactly why it works. Simple, heartfelt and straightforward, you can hear this dominating radio - if it gets the chance, of course - hopefully producing a breakout moment.

For fans of: Passenger, Damien Rice, Ed Sheeran

In three words: Direct acoustic pop