Kyla La Grange, a bewitching folk-pop songstress from Watford, England, originally plied her trade at open-mike nights in darkened bars. She formed a backing band, wrote songs with bigger aspirations than the small student pubs she had become accustomed to, and signed to indie label Chess Club. Her first single, "Been Better," was released in 2011. Invoking comparisons to the pageantry of Florence Welch and the mysticism of Bat for Lashes, La Grange's theatrics and stage presence provided an eerie backdrop to her darkly dramatic folk-pop tales of heartache and loss. With her strong, angsty vocals, La Grange's soaring, epic choruses in "Heavy Stone" and "Vampire Soul" gained her many plaudits, and major labels were alerted to her raw talent. ~ Scott Kerr