The Natural Curve finds fresh pop energy on the brightly offbeat ‘Silly Girl’

After three decades spent moving between nu-jazz, house, funk, trip-hop and electronic experimentation, producer Paul Cullen might reasonably be expected to settle into a familiar lane. Instead, his project The Natural Curve continues to operate through curiosity, with new single ‘Silly Girl’ opening another route into synth-pop without abandoning the musical warmth that has long defined his work.

The track introduces vocalist Liberty Taylor, whose spirited performance gives Cullen’s production a youthful immediacy. At 20 years old, she arrives from a theatrical background, and there is a clear sense of character in the way she inhabits the song. Her delivery brings personality and movement to the arrangement, preventing its retro touches from becoming an exercise in period recreation.

Cullen’s history is also important to understanding why the collaboration works. As a co-founder of TAXI, he helped shape records that emerged from the late-90s and early-2000s nu-jazz movement, a period when musicians were finding increasingly inventive ways to combine club production with traditional performance. And that instinct remains central to The Natural Curve.

‘Silly Girl’ represents a more direct pop approach than much of his earlier catalogue, but the transition feels entirely natural. Its electronic surfaces are clean and inviting, while the underlying groove ensures the track never becomes overly polished or weightless. But rather than treating pop accessibility as a compromise, the producer uses it as another framework through which to explore melody, rhythm and vocal expression.

The result is an assured, characterful pop single that broadens The Natural Curve’s range without losing its identity. ‘Silly Girl’ may mark Paul Cullen’s clearest move towards synth-pop, but beneath its brighter exterior sits the same principle that has guided his work from the beginning: electronic music becomes far more compelling when there is a recognisable human pulse running through it.