Erik Hassle: Pieces

Erik Hassle, who's Swedish and male, has a disconcerting physical similarity to La Roux's Elly Jackson and, musically, to Peter "D:Ream" Cunnah – talk about a fantasy combination for connoisseurs of mildly diverting electro-pop. And his debut is mildly diverting: he has a knack for writing songs that should ­connect, but instead just miss. The ­ingredients are there – lyrics that find Hassle ­opening his already-battered 21-year-old heart about love and social ineptness, emotively sung to surging electro-­melodies – but somehow don't quite ­coalesce. However sincerely you would like to love an artist who merges a plinky, throwaway synth-line with a woebegone chorus ("Don't bring me flowers after I'm dead/ Save your ­giving for the ­living instead") ­addressed to the girl who spurned him, there's ­something that stops it being truly memorable. It could be that he just lacks the ­overarching confidence of ­rivals like Frankmusik and Sam Sparro.