Foxes: Live at The Academy 2

It must be amusing for overseas acts playing the modest confines of the Abbey Street basement for the first time. But Lousia Rose Allen is a determined little so and so. The smalltown girl with big city dreams has already worked with the awesome Rudimental and bagged a Grammy for her vocals on Zedd’s hit ‘Clarity’. She quickly has the crowd (who for the most part look like they’ve been dragged through Topshop in a state of high excitement) cheering every note.

But despite her determination and energy, Foxes ultimately disappoints on her first Irish visit. Her constant calls of “Dublin, are you ready? Hands in the air,” never fail to get a frenzied response from her small army of fans. But even solo ‘hits’, ‘Youth’ and ‘White Coat’, sound flat and uninspiring.

As the set continues more holes begin to appear in Foxes’ armour: comparisons to Florence And The Machine are obvious, but so are the limitations to Allen’s vocals as she snatches at the power notes too often.

Her musicians have plenty of scope for improvement too. Allen’s lyrics are a bit cliché heavy also: We get tracks about losing her mind, never giving up, leaving home. Not that it’s all bad. Especially impressive is ‘Beauty Queen’, an ode to individualism and not conforming to mainstream beauty ideas.

Clearly Allen has talent. With some decent backing vocals, a brass section and perhaps some cutting edge beats, who knows what Foxes might be capable of? For now file under F for Foxes, Florence wannabe... and check back in a year or two.