Pop review: Pixx: The Age of Anxiety

★★★☆☆
The debut of the 21-year-old south Londoner Hannah Rodgers gives an idea of what it is like to come of age in an era of digital revolution and political discord. Named after WH Auden’s poem, Rodgers’ album was inspired by childhood periods of insomnia-led anxiety, but captures a wider generational mood. Catchy, Eighties-tinged electro-pop is the backdrop to lyrics about the pressures of social media-led romance and the uncertainties of young, 21st-century life. At best this leads to the insistent, metronomic I Bow Down, which is markedly original and instantly familiar, the sign of a classic pop song. Elsewhere the album has a tendency to drift, like so many lives of the twentysomethings it represents, but Rodgers’s strong, unshowy voice and quirky way with a tune marks her as a talent of note. (4AD)