Midnight achieves what generations of aspirant songwriters have dreamed of doing: it poeticises the New York city streets. And he’s good with technology: he recorded his first song, Hold the Phone, on his iPhone, and that drew attention to his voice, while Midnight proved he could write. It probably helps that he’s not pug-ugly. He gives good quaver (not the cheese-based snack, the vocal tremble), which can’t help but denote passion, and people seem to be lapping that up right now.

“I think that’s something that’s been hard-wired into me,” said the 19-year-old, an avowed Ray Charles and Otis Redding fan, of his music’s hymnal cadences and his ardent singing style. But there’s a real take-me-to-church quality to his tone: you can imagine his paymasters at Glassnote, the label (also home to Mumford & Sons, Chvrches, Childish Gambino, Phoenix) to which he’s just signed, relishing the look of horror on Hozier’s face when he hears there’s a new kid in town with a voice like a ravaged choirboy. Actually, troubadour suggests a guitar-slinger when he’s more of a piano man.

But it’s not all Brit boys, because here comes Tor Miller from New York, reclaiming what is essentially an American invention: the lovelorn troubadour possessed of gospel fervour.

Tor miller bset songs