Today we can't stop listening to: Kristina Train

Smokey and touched with grit, Dark Black sounds like someone put a cigarette out on Kristina Train's heart

‘Since you’ve been gone, Dark Black is the colour of my life’ sings Kristina Train with such intoxicating rasps that you’ll be pulled so deep into the fog of a bad break-up that you’ll want to call an ex and apologise for everything.

Smokey and touched with grit, Dark Black sounds like someone put a cigarette out on her heart.

‘I don’t think I could sing a song I don’t really feel connected to,’ Train explains in her sweet native Southern American accent. ‘But after this album I’m looking forward to not writing personal songs! I’m a grown woman now. There was a lot of life that happened between my first album and second album.’

Released in 2009, Kristina’s debut album Spilt Milk was a ‘learning curve’ that failed to earn her the credit she deserves, but none of that matters now Dark Black is playing on repeat on our stereos.

A genius for stirring up emotions, Kristina sings from the heart: ‘To me, music is bigger than just songs. Even as a child it’s helped me get through things. It’s been my pillow to cry on.’

Born in New York but raised in Georgia, the 30-year-old counts Dusty, Elvis and Sinatra among her musical inspirations. ‘Forget the content of the lyrics, they tell their own story with their voice alone you know,’ she explains.

‘And I love that so much, it’s such a basic level of communication when you can do something like that.’

While most of Dark Black tracks tell stories of heartbreak and loss, it’s the sunny choruses in the likes of I Wanna Live In LA that chase the blues away, at least for a moment. Athough it’s London Kristina is calling home now.

‘I moved here, obviously because it makes me happy, but it was really for the music because there is something in the air here. And it really is inspiring. And I just felt that the sensibility that what I sing is classic in a way but with a London sensibility in the production and that in a way gives it a different twist.

‘I love that there is always something to do at anytime. You never have a dull moment here. I love spending a lazy weekend walking around Borough market I love the Southbank there’s so much to pick up there. I’m in Hampstead Heath a lot too - I love feeling like I have a patch of green to clear my head in. And my local pub!’

We’ll have what she’s having.