Thief Broken Boy

We featured Thief (formerly Thief Urban) over a year ago after he dropped a couple of stellar demos, including the outrageously smooth "Cold." Thief is the pop-slanted alter-ego of Sydney musician PJ Wolf (who we've also featured), and he's returned bearing music gifts with his first official single release, "Broken Boy."

While I was terribly taken with his demos, this is a far more polished offering from Thief -- not surprising given the involvement of noted local producer Matt Redlich. While his earlier music was R&B influenced (think a cross between the Neptunes and Justin Timberlake), "Broken Boy" is electro-pop at its purest, overflowing with sharp synth arrangement, deep percussion and falsetto vocals a la Miike Snow. It's pieced together intricately, and it'll have you nodding along in no time, then hitting the repeat button straight away. Guaranteed.

"Broken Boy" is the first single from what will be Thief's debut EP,Closer,scheduled for release on 1 November. This is one of those artists you can't believe isn't huge already, so hopefully this new material starts getting the appreciation it deserves.