Esthero’s one of those folks that not a ton of people know, but those that do know love her to death. It’s hard to pin her musical style down. While her debut, 1998’s Breath From Another, was on a downtempo Sade/Everything But The Girl vibe, 2005’s Wikked Lil Grrrls had songs reminiscent of everyone from Pink to Little Dragon, and it featured collaborations with everyone from Cee-Lo to Sean Lennon. She’s definitely her own artist, spunky, smooth and independent. I dig her quite a bit…and have been waiting for a new album from her forever.

She guested on a couple of tracks on Timbaland’s last album, and at that point I got scared because I was afraid that she was aiming to become just another flossy pop singer. I don’t know if the association still exists, but we do have new music from Esthero in the form of “Never Gonna Let You Go.” I will admit, it’s the poppiest thing she’s done, and people who liked Breath From Another will be thrown off quite a bit, but it’s a cute little song, and knowing how eclectic her music is, I’m sure it’s not indicative of what an entire album of hers will sound like. I am a little thrown by the fact that it sounds a lot like fellow Canadian Nelly Furtado–another siren who briefly fell under Timbo’s dance-pop spell.

Hopefully we’ll get news on a full album release shortly. “Never Gonna Let You Go” will be available digitally tomorrow, June 5th.