Foxes (No 1,142)

Hometown: London.

The lineup: Louisa Rose Allen.

The background: Foxes is Louisa Rose Allen, a 21-year-old singer and songwriter from Southampton, now living in London. On stage she is joined by two others, but she is the dominant character here. And "character" is about right: there is a theatrical, thespy quality to her vocals, as though she's auditioning for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Goth: The Musical. They're very mannered, and you can hear every word, not that that's a bad thing (unless the words are gauche and jejune, which they are), and you wouldn't be surprised to learn that she attended the BRIT School (actually, she didn't). She isn't the first wannabe pop girl with intimations of "edge" and "darkness" in her songs to emerge this year, although she might be the last (hello, it's November), but the question is: does she bring anything new to the feisty, lusty-voiced electro-girl genre?

Before we answer that, we should point out that Allen has, according to her press release, been "breathing new life into London's acoustic scene of late", which invites comparisons with Daughter, that other girl who made the switch from sad strumalongs to electronica, perhaps when she realised the female troubadour niche was already quite full. Then again, so is the synthy, symphonic female balladeer niche, and that hasn't stopped people getting very excited indeed about the emergence of Allen, with her "voice that lifts the listener out of the mundane and into the magical". You would almost believe there hadn't already been a Florence, a Clare Maguire, an Ellie Goulding, a Wolfette or a Spark. Foxes' debut single is being released by Neon Gold, the label that brought us Spark, as well as Ellie and Marina, so you've got to hand it to them for persistence.

Still, it's early days – very early days (Foxes only played her first gig the other week) – and there is every chance Allen will be able to create more interesting music than the generic fare they're offering thus far. The fact is that when Kate Bush – the Elvis of all this spooky, witchy pop – first arrived in January 1978 with Wuthering Heights, people were too knocked sideways by punk to accept it as anything but a novelty ditty by a mildly kooky female. It seemed at the time to be less the start of an extraordinary career than an amusingly striking one-off. But she was given time to develop by EMI and, most importantly, she took control of all aspects of her artistry, and before long she became pop's paradigmatic female studio-hound.

We can't quite hear anything in Allen's "songs inspired by everything from the sex lives of foxes to the joys of a hangover" to indicate that she will one day forge new paths, and we are yet to get a sense from her performances that here is someone capable of producing anything to match her heroines, who include Nina Simone, Patti Smith and the inevitable Bush/Björk/Bat for Lashes B-girl troika, but we're heartened to read that "plans are afoot to transform Foxes' acoustic compositions into fully formed productions that do both her voice and songwriting justice". In some cases, notably the song Youth, the production is probably stronger than the composition itself. Home is utterly unexceptional, with vocals that suggest Allen might fill that slither of a gap between the cutesy hiccupy girly approach employed by Ellie/Marina and the foghorn mode of Florence/Maguire. There are two more songs, only demos, but they're an improvement on the finished ones, particularly Hearts + Daggers, which features a melody that goes in unexpected directions, which is always welcome. However, our primary concern – and fortunately we don't have to sell Foxes, just herald her arrival – remains: this bombastic big-voiced belter market is a tad congested.

The buzz: "Simply amazing" – Ohinvertedwordclub.

The truth: We don't mean to set the dogs on her, we'd just advise hunting for a more original sound.

Most likely to: Fox audiences who've heard it all before.

Least likely to: Think "for fox sake", when she reads this article.

What to buy: Youth/Home will be released by Neon Gold in January.

File next to: Wolfette, Spark, Ellie Goulding, Marina.

Links: louirose.com/about/

Monday's new band: Jamie N Commons.