We Speak Music
Bradley Jago Stakes His Claim On UK Soul With ‘My Inner Vitriol’ EP
Rising soul-pop artist Bradley Jago returns with EP ‘My Inner Vitriol’. Drawing parallels to Leon Bridges, Olivia Dean, and Joy Crookes, the striking EP sees Bradley Jago sitting at the intersection of contemporary soul and pop. Co-signed by BBC Music Introducing and Future Hits Radio, the project unpacks the destabilising force of love, tracing its spiral of self-doubt and acceptance. Landing at Number 1 on the iTunes R&B Album Chart on release day, the EP marks a defining moment in Bradley’s ascent, as ‘My Inner Vitriol’ showcases Bradley’s signature soul vocals in their most fully realised form yet.
Framed by Logan Apsin’s production, the project captures Bradley’s first experience of falling in love. As the EP evolves, Bradley traces his shifting emotional landscape, each track acting as a new iteration of his inner world as insecurity and uncertainty resurface in shifting, unexpected forms.
From the hazy textures of ‘I Forgot’ through to the R&B-leaning ‘You Let Go’, the six-track EP swims effortlessly between subtlety and scale. The lead single, ‘Killer Queen’, ignites the project with a hook-led pop lift, while ‘In The End’ is grounded by delicate piano from Joe Burnett, unfolding as a ballad that showcases Bradley’s standout vocal performance. At its heart, the title track ‘My Inner Vitriol’ anchors the EP, rising from restraint into widescreen, with strings that swell with the weight of thoughts that refuse to settle. As the title single, an accompanying music video is set to be released alongside. The final track ‘Burn’ arrives as the embers after impact, elevated again by Shirin Nisametdin’s intricate strings, as ‘My Inner Vitriol’ resolves with the unguarded ballad.
Speaking on the meaning of the EP, Bradley shares,
“My Inner Vitriol is about the daily fight within myself about which thoughts are mine and which are defence mechanisms. Experiencing love for the first time brought a lot to the surface, and after the honeymoon phase came a deeper realisation that I have to face my inner struggles on my own. That heaviness shaped the project into something darker, more dramatic, and more exposed than anything I’ve released before.”
Penning emotionally raw lyrics has always been central to Bradley Jago’s artistry, yet ‘My Inner Vitriol’ sees him stepping into a wider soundworld. A world where warm soul textures meet sweeping orchestral depth, endlessly orbiting the heart that Bradley Jago wears firmly on his sleeve.
About Bradley Jago
Bradley Jago is a London-based artist whose music blends the warmth of classic soul with the infectious hooks of modern pop. Proclaiming his music as ‘queer soul for queer souls’, Jago’s discography is routinely dark, vulnerable and cinematic, as he moves seamlessly between heartfelt ballads, sleek pop, and soaring neo-soul anthems. Having grown up and begun his early music career in Portsmouth, Jago’s discography is unwaveringly autobiographical, as he documents his journey from navigating queer identity in a conservative city to discovering freedom and self-expression within London’s creative landscape. Channelling influences from Adele and Amy Winehouse to Sam Smith and Leon Bridges, Jago is on a mission to centre queerness within the modern soul landscape, as he offers up intricate, nuanced stories that come with queer experiences.
Since debuting in 2021 with Moonstruck, Jago has built a rich and evolving body of work. His early singles Rain (2021) and Distractions (2021) established his place as a rising voice in UK soul, the latter breaking into the Local Music Chart Top 100. Later releases, including the Bradley Jago Live Sessions EP (2022), Girl Problems EP (2024), Keep On (2024), and Bound To You, (2024), have showcased his versatility and emotional depth, securing numerous BBC Music Introducing plays and amassed nearly one million streams on Spotify alone.
A captivating live performer, Jago has played extensively across London and South East England, with multiple sold-out headline shows to date. Jago has also cultivated a flourishing presence across TikTok, where his authenticity, charisma, and catchy hooks have fostered a growing community of deeply connected listeners.
Find Bradley Jago on INSTAGRAM | TIKTOK | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE
Listen To Bradley Jago on SPOTIFY | APPLE MUSIC
Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.
‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.
The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.
The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:
Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”
About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.
We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”
The album and full-length film will be released on the 5th of June on Monotreme Records.
Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.
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