Every week at PopCrush, we’re putting the spotlight on one up-and-coming act you need to know about. Why? So you can get on board early before everyone else and their mother jumps on the bandwagon…and so you can be that one friend in the group who’s always like, “Um, actually, I prefer their earlier work.”

You never know where inspiration will come knocking. Just ask Minke.

The London-based alternative R&B up-and-comer formally arrived on the scene earlier this year with her HypeMachine No. 1-charting "Gold Angel," earning early support from Zane Lowe on Beats 1 — and even a deeply meditative, super-artsy Lindsay Lohan on Instagram.

This month, Minke returns with a follow-up to her acclaimed debut — a tribute to letting down your guard — which came to be because of a simple phrase uttered at a bar.

"'You can't dance in armour'" was something a local said to me once at one of the bars I was working at in London and it sort of stuck," Minke tells PopCrush of "Armour."

"I had written it down in the notes on my phone and as Rory [Andrew] and I started writing, I found it and we wrote the song really quickly after that."

The track, she says, is a celebration of vulnerability.

"Can't dance in armour, hold your defenses / I'm here beside you 'til you come to your senses," she soothingly, soulfully assures across warm pulsations and light tripping beats, recalling Solange, London Grammar and Jessie Ware.

"It's fine not feeling fine - you’re not alone," she explains.

"Everyone goes through s--t and the best thing we can do is to be ourselves, truly, always. Even when sometimes its not that pretty."

After hitting the stage at Bushstock Festival over the weekend, Minke will be performing at Latitude Festival later this summer. Listen to "Armour" above and "Gold Angel" below.

And for more from the burgeoning singer-songwriter, make sure to follow her journey on Twitter and Facebook.

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