The Austin 100: Katie Malco

By Stephen Thompson

Published March 17, 2020 at 5:01 AM EDT

Hometown: Northampton, England

Genre: Rock

Why We're Excited: U.K. singer-songwriter Katie Malco has released a smattering of songs over the years — mostly barren piano-and-voice recordings steeped in vulnerable melancholy — but none like last year's bracing and infectious rock-and-roll blowout "Creatures." The track, from Malco's forthcoming full-length debut, taps briefly into the singer's softer side, but uses it primarily as a foil for a soaring string of marvelous, ever-grander choruses.

Listen to Katie Malco's "Creatures"

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Stephen Thompson

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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