Before we dive into those little paragons of pop that make 2009 look
like a promising year of music, it's fitting to issue a few elegies.
With that in mind, goodbye Annie and thank you for giving us one of the most caustic pop songs of last year even if your record got lost in limbo. Also, thanks for coming back so fiercely, Lily Allen. Not so much to the Spice Girls.
With that out of the way, here's a cast of musicians (many of who seem
like sleeker, retro-fitted incarnations of bands we already adore)
ready to send a few jolts into the music world's axis this year.
And since no reasonable person could be expected to keep up with a constant avalanche of new music (I still haven't got around to most of the music on my iPod left over from the second half of last year), I'll be unrolling my favorite picks for the year over the next few weeks, including a few unsigned diamonds. Because the state of music criticism has become so unfortunately staid and predictable (thanks Pitchfork!), I'll try to shake things up. This week, we go from assembly-line pop to slow-burning indie rock.
The Saturdays
Appearing like they marched straight out of the pages of Nylon and then made a mad dash to the studio with Rihanna's producers, The Saturdays are everything we'd expect from a standard-issue girl group these days. Attractive, autotuned and sleek. There's very little to distinguish one member from another. But their virtue lies in the way they balance girl group poise with the coolness mandatory to pull off successful electropop. At times, they sound like a toned-down Spice Girls-Calvin Harris hybrid. It's dubious whether they have enough lifeblood left to justify a sophomore outing, but they've successfully scaled the UK and are eyeing an American break, hoping that it boosts them past pop vets Girls Aloud. But until they draft an American gameplan, you can get get your grimy paws on their first album, Chasing Lights, here. Choice cuts include If This Is Love, Up, Work and Keep Her. The single clunker is Issues, which is also unfortunately their most recent single.
A Camp
The Cardigans were one of the most unexpected treats of the nineties, rising only to fame with an infectious pop song that they later disavowed. Sometime around 2001, lead singer Nina Persson soldiered out on her own, spawned a side project under the stage name A Camp and recorded this album which performed decently in Europe. Then she went back to The Cardigans until last year, when she and her bandmates began production Colonia, the follow-up to the 2001 self-titled debut. The album is releasing Stateside as well, in late April. And judging from the first single, Stronger Than Jesus, it seems to be a strictly slow-burning affair. This isn't a bad thing.
Brett Saxon
I will admit, this one is the unlikeliest pick of the bunch -- if only because he has yet to work with high profile producers or record anything as viral as "Lovefool." Typically, I eschew folk rock. Which is why I found something especially endearing about Brett Saxon, whose ability to sing, play harmonica and strum the guitar almost simultaneously should win over stony music cynics. Also he's part of the big to-do that is the Brooklyn music scene. As far the genre goes, his EP A Castle Built Too Quickly (fans of instant gratification can sample the record and purchase it on iTunes) doesn't necessarily turn it on its nose, but it doesn't need to. You'd all do well to start with "The Trees," which also features guest vocals by this chick.
Rohin Guha is a Brooklyn-based writer whose idea of a good time includes kim chi and draft beers. He is a blogger for BlackBook Magazine.
And since no reasonable person could be expected to keep up with a constant avalanche of new music (I still haven't got around to most of the music on my iPod left over from the second half of last year), I'll be unrolling my favorite picks for the year over the next few weeks, including a few unsigned diamonds. Because the state of music criticism has become so unfortunately staid and predictable (thanks Pitchfork!), I'll try to shake things up. This week, we go from assembly-line pop to slow-burning indie rock.
The Saturdays
Appearing like they marched straight out of the pages of Nylon and then made a mad dash to the studio with Rihanna's producers, The Saturdays are everything we'd expect from a standard-issue girl group these days. Attractive, autotuned and sleek. There's very little to distinguish one member from another. But their virtue lies in the way they balance girl group poise with the coolness mandatory to pull off successful electropop. At times, they sound like a toned-down Spice Girls-Calvin Harris hybrid. It's dubious whether they have enough lifeblood left to justify a sophomore outing, but they've successfully scaled the UK and are eyeing an American break, hoping that it boosts them past pop vets Girls Aloud. But until they draft an American gameplan, you can get get your grimy paws on their first album, Chasing Lights, here. Choice cuts include If This Is Love, Up, Work and Keep Her. The single clunker is Issues, which is also unfortunately their most recent single.
A Camp
The Cardigans were one of the most unexpected treats of the nineties, rising only to fame with an infectious pop song that they later disavowed. Sometime around 2001, lead singer Nina Persson soldiered out on her own, spawned a side project under the stage name A Camp and recorded this album which performed decently in Europe. Then she went back to The Cardigans until last year, when she and her bandmates began production Colonia, the follow-up to the 2001 self-titled debut. The album is releasing Stateside as well, in late April. And judging from the first single, Stronger Than Jesus, it seems to be a strictly slow-burning affair. This isn't a bad thing.
Brett Saxon
I will admit, this one is the unlikeliest pick of the bunch -- if only because he has yet to work with high profile producers or record anything as viral as "Lovefool." Typically, I eschew folk rock. Which is why I found something especially endearing about Brett Saxon, whose ability to sing, play harmonica and strum the guitar almost simultaneously should win over stony music cynics. Also he's part of the big to-do that is the Brooklyn music scene. As far the genre goes, his EP A Castle Built Too Quickly (fans of instant gratification can sample the record and purchase it on iTunes) doesn't necessarily turn it on its nose, but it doesn't need to. You'd all do well to start with "The Trees," which also features guest vocals by this chick.
Rohin Guha is a Brooklyn-based writer whose idea of a good time includes kim chi and draft beers. He is a blogger for BlackBook Magazine.
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