Mpho, Pop Art (Wall of Sound)

Mpho Skeef was born to a Zulu father and white mother at a time when apartheid forbade such liaisons. She has, therefore, rather more life experience than the average conveyor-belt diva.

With input from the likes of Switch (Santigold, M.I.A.), Pop Art, the debut album from the sometime Bugz in the Attic and Coldcut singer, is hit and miss, but its best moments – such as single "Box N Locks" – mark Mpho down as a soul princess with an independent spirit. A precious thing in these cookie-cutter times.