One to watch: Myles Smith

Myles Smith has arrived at just the right time, as if scheduled by an algorithm. The 25-year-old graduate from Luton first surfaced in 2022 with judiciously chosen TikTok covers – Amber Run’s I Found, Neighbourhood’s Sweater Weather – that suit his passionate, expressive voice. Smith learned guitar aged nine, did the singer-songwriter open mic circuit in his teens. Yet what makes his folk-pop spark is a deft ability to parse the craft of the most successful songwriters – such as his heroes Green Day, the Mumfords, Ed Sheeran and Labrinth. Anthemic, impossible to forget indie singles Solo and My Home got him signed to Sony, and led to his recent superb debut EP, You Promised a Lifetime.

What makes this a good year for Smith is that there’s more than a hint of Americana and alt-country in tracks such as Behind, while his love of wordless exhortations (woh-oh-oh) marks his music as the ideal meeting place between Coldplay and Black country artist Shaboozey. Perhaps he could do with throwing a little more weird into the mix, but everything he’s released so far, including new single Stargazing, with its driving rhythm and catchy melody, sounds like a hit. This summer, Smith is supporting Tom Odell and playing his own shows around the UK and Europe, plus he’s booked for the next series of Later….Watch him go stellar.

• Stargazing is out now. Myles Smith tours the UK and Europe until 27 July, then Canada and the US until 6 November