I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, walking into Adelaide Music Hall on a drizzling Friday night to see 24-year-old musician Daley. The crowd itself wasn’t what I was expecting – neither in size, nor in demographics. I went to go see soul legend Charles Bradley last year, and his sold-out audience was almost entirely white. Daley, by comparison, is a skinny white guy from England. His audience? Well, more along the lines of what I was expecting to see with Bradley and still very small.
Calling his sound “future throwback soul,” it’s easy to see Daley’s potential for crossover appeal though. His musical heroes are worn on his sleeve, but liking his music doesn’t restrict you to just being a fan of R&B, first turning heads with a collaboration with Damon Albarn’s genre-crossing Gorillaz.
Daley’s appearance on the 2010 Gorillaz single “Doncamatic” was not released as part of Plastic Beach, but the song still placed in the UK singles’ top-40 charts and had many fans expressing surprise that Daley was a guy – not, as the timbre of his voice might otherwise suggest, a woman. With the success of other alt-R&B artists such as Rhye coming about in recent years, there’s an evident market for Daley’s performance style.
In February Daley released his debut, Days & Nights. With the new album in hand, he stopped by Toronto for another appearance – his second in four months.
Adelaide Hall certainly wasn’t busy for the evening: the wrap-around balcony closed and plenty of room on the ground floor, lending the show a very intimate atmosphere. Thankfully the small audience helped Daley’s music. The musician’s delivery isn’t particularly powerful (interesting, yes; powerful, not so much) and was given with more of an emotional caress than a huge showing of force.
Joined on stage by a three-piece band, Daley and his impressive head of hair started the night with Days & Nights opener “Time Travel,” its slow claps giving way to a quicker ending. Throughout the set, Daley built up momentum, moving toward familiar material as his voice warmed up as well.
As a musician, he reaches enviable high notes – particularly noteworthy during a cover of Chaka Khan’s “Sweet Thing” and on “Spent,” from the 2012 EP Those Who Wait (an EP that also gives Daley a Toronto connection, produced by local hip hop artist Rich Kidd.) “Look Up,” another from the new album, also played well with Daley introducing it as his attempt to create his own classics.
A three-song encore kept up the energy in the room, Daley ending with the crowd pleasing “Alone Together.” It’s a fitting title for the entirety of his Toronto show that played like an intimate showcase of some pretty apparent talents. There’s still work to be done before he’s truly ready for the big leagues, yes – but he’s young, it’s early in his career, and you can tell there’s plenty of ambition behind that voice. It will be interesting to see where both Daley and his audience go from here.
