The enduring influence of The Cure on British pop music is often less about sound than attitude. There’s a distinctly southern English casualness running through their best work; an ability to drift effortlessly between melancholy, euphoria, indie-rock and straight-up pop without ever seeming overly concerned about genre boundaries. Rosa Walton’s solo debut operates in the same territory.
Known primarily as one half of Let’s Eat Grandma, Walton uses ‘Tell Me It’s A Dream’ to step away from some of that band’s heavier emotional terrain in favour of something brighter and more immediate. The result is a record full of shimmering synths, jangling guitars and choruses that come and go quickly, rarely overstaying their welcome.
Opener Heart To Heartbreak sets the tone. Built around sparkling ‘80s-indebted pop production, it feels like the sound of somebody consciously shaking off old baggage.
There’s a buoyancy here that is hugely accessible and throwback, albeit filtered through contemporary indie-pop production and Walton’s naturally unguarded vocal style.
Sorry Anyway is just as strong, pairing one of the album’s most infectious hooks with lyrics that embrace imperfection rather than attempting to overcome it. The song manages the difficult trick of sounding carefree without becoming lightweight, its rush of synths and guitars masking a surprisingly mature emotional core.
Elsewhere, Halfway Round The World leans into wistful guitar-pop, somewhere between dream-pop nostalgia and coming-of-age soundtrack material. Like much of the album, it succeeds through charm rather than reinvention. This explains the record’s strengths, alongside its weaknesses. Walton proves herself an impressively versatile songwriter, equally comfortable with synth-pop, indie-rock and more reflective folk-leaning material. Yet the album’s easy-going nature occasionally prevents it from leaving a deeper mark.
Still, that flexibility may prove to be gold dust. Just as The Cure could move effortlessly between gloom, romance and pop immediacy, Walton demonstrates an appealing genre fluidity of her own. It gives her a huge creative toolkit to play with, even if on this occasion the songs themselves don’t linger as long as their inspirations.
Rosa Walton Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows:
Mon September 14 2026 - GLASGOW Hug and Pint
Tue September 15 2026 - MANCHESTER YES (The Basement)
Thu September 17 2026 - LONDON Lower Third - Outernet
Fri September 18 2026 - NORWICH Voodoo Daddy's Showroom
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