Sarah Walk – Amy (Track Premiere)

A graduate of Boston's Berklee College of Music – whose alumni includes St Vincent's Annie Clark, Kaoru Ishibashi aka Of Montreal collaborator Kishi Bashi, and super-producer Quincy Jones – Sarah Walk has spent much of the last year living between Los Angeles and West London, working on her debut album with Steve Brown (Laura Mvula's producer). Little Black Book is due for release via One Little Indian – the home of Björk and Ásgeir – on 8 September.

Little Black Book showcases Walk's distinct, androgynous vocals and powerful emotional hook; she describes the new album as "intended to reveal the different layers of the human heart." Those characteristics are all on show on Amy, Walk's cover of the track from Ryan Adams' 2000 album Heartbreaker, adding extra heft and drive to Adams' original while showcasing her impressive vocal. Describing the track, Walk says: "I vividly remember the first time I heard Ryan Adams' song Amy. I was driving from the countryside into London and it brought me to tears. I knew the only way to cover it was to change the arrangement a bit because I loved the intimacy and delicate nature of the original and didn't want to try and replicate something I felt was already so beautiful.

"I've tried to make the song my own through the arrangement but kept its lyrical brilliance and melancholy feel. It's an absolutely stunning song and I'm happy to be able to sing it."

Listen to Amy in the player below; Little Black Book is out on 8 Sep.