‘Loretto’ is a grand piece of alt-folk reminiscent of early-2000s Beck. It comes from East London’s Ali MacQueen, who was inspired by the streets of London. “At the end of this alleyway north of Oxford Street was some graffiti, which was tagged ‘Loretto’, and that was it,” he explains. “By the time I walked out from the backstreet and out back on to the street, I was humming the chorus.” This almost effortless moment of inspiration comes through in the laid-back combination of melodic simplicity and its undeniable effectiveness, and the complexity of producing such a wide-ranging, deeply textured tune. MacQueen has almost total control over the instruments in his music, which should spawn some deeply personal, authentic tunes over the rest of 2021. -Dan Peeke