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The playlist: pop The playlist: pop
(2 months later)
Tove Styrke – Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking to YouTove Styrke – Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking to You
Another month, another female Swedish pop singer who puts most other pop stars to shame. After working as a model in her teens, Tove Styrke was discovered by Swedish producer Anders Bagge, who just so happened to be a judge on Swedish Idol (like American Idol, only in Sweden). Styrke – who first began singing with a local jazz band when she was at school – finished third on the show and then signed to Sony and released her excellent debut single, co-written by Lykke Li, Million Pieces. An album followed quickly in 2010, but she's been pretty silent ever since. Earlier this month, however, she announced her return in pretty bold fashion with the feisty Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking to You, a joyously clattering call to arms that features this delicious put-down: “I hope you hit the ground hard when you fell for yourself.”Another month, another female Swedish pop singer who puts most other pop stars to shame. After working as a model in her teens, Tove Styrke was discovered by Swedish producer Anders Bagge, who just so happened to be a judge on Swedish Idol (like American Idol, only in Sweden). Styrke – who first began singing with a local jazz band when she was at school – finished third on the show and then signed to Sony and released her excellent debut single, co-written by Lykke Li, Million Pieces. An album followed quickly in 2010, but she's been pretty silent ever since. Earlier this month, however, she announced her return in pretty bold fashion with the feisty Even If I'm Loud It Doesn't Mean I'm Talking to You, a joyously clattering call to arms that features this delicious put-down: “I hope you hit the ground hard when you fell for yourself.”
Mapei – ChangeMapei – Change
Every so often a song comes along that's so perfectly realised and inarguably amazing you want to take it to dinner, marry it and die curled up alongside it. This was true of Mapei's Don't Wait, a song that somehow managed to mix Baile funk drums, a languorous guitar riff and a message of friendship so simple (“if it wasn't for you I'd be on my own”) it's practically genius. Following a song like that is no easy task, and while the more obviously uplifting Change – also taken from her forthcoming debut album, Hey Hey – doesn't quite match up to Don't Wait's skyscraping heights, it's at least 67% better than most other songs released in 2014 so far, and acts as the perfect stop-gap before starting your 98th listen to Don't Wait.Every so often a song comes along that's so perfectly realised and inarguably amazing you want to take it to dinner, marry it and die curled up alongside it. This was true of Mapei's Don't Wait, a song that somehow managed to mix Baile funk drums, a languorous guitar riff and a message of friendship so simple (“if it wasn't for you I'd be on my own”) it's practically genius. Following a song like that is no easy task, and while the more obviously uplifting Change – also taken from her forthcoming debut album, Hey Hey – doesn't quite match up to Don't Wait's skyscraping heights, it's at least 67% better than most other songs released in 2014 so far, and acts as the perfect stop-gap before starting your 98th listen to Don't Wait.
Little Daylight – Mona LisaLittle Daylight – Mona Lisa
Brooklyn-based Little Daylight, aka Nikki, Matt and Eric, are – like Let Loose before them – the sort of pop entity who play their own instruments. As with more modern contemporaries such as Dragonette, St Lucia and Wolf Gang, the trio make songs with actual guitars and drums you hit with sticks and yet somehow avoid taking themselves so seriously they forget to add things like a melody or a chorus you can hum after one listen. In fact their new single Mona Lisa – taken from the forthcoming album, Hello Memory – is a glistening slice of summery synthpop that not only shares a name with a forgotten Britney Spears classic (and a painting, apparently) but also employs some brilliantly placed drum claps and pop's greatest weapon: handclaps. Brooklyn-based Little Daylight, aka Nikki, Matt and Eric, are – like Let Loose before them – the sort of pop entity who play their own instruments. As with more modern contemporaries such as Dragonette, St Lucia and Wolf Gang, the trio make songs with actual guitars and drums you hit with sticks and yet somehow avoid taking themselves so seriously they forget to add things like a melody or a chorus you can hum after one listen. In fact their new single Mona Lisa – taken from the forthcoming album, Hello Memory – is a glistening slice of summery synthpop that not only shares a name with a forgotten Britney Spears classic (and a painting, apparently) but also employs some brilliantly placed drum claps and pop's greatest weapon: handclaps.
Leah McFall – HomeLeah McFall – Home
Pop is all about positioning and never is positioning more important than on a debut single by an artist who's just left a TV talent show. Leah McFall – runner-up on the second series of The Voice UK – always had something more than your average Voice contestant (bigger hair, for one thing), but as we've learned through the years that counts for nothing if the first single goes wrong. And so it is that the official stream of her debut single, Home – produced by her former 'coach' on the show, will.i.am – comes with an introduction by a DJ from Radio 1Xtra, who, as well as getting her name wrong, says he's never watched a TV talent show in his life and that he's all about the music (etc). The heavy-handed authenticity klaxons aside, there's a lot to love about Home, a stomping, slightly bluesy ode to finding a safe place that plays out more like a soulful Ryan Tedder production than the dead-eyed dance will.i.am has been putting his name to of late.Pop is all about positioning and never is positioning more important than on a debut single by an artist who's just left a TV talent show. Leah McFall – runner-up on the second series of The Voice UK – always had something more than your average Voice contestant (bigger hair, for one thing), but as we've learned through the years that counts for nothing if the first single goes wrong. And so it is that the official stream of her debut single, Home – produced by her former 'coach' on the show, will.i.am – comes with an introduction by a DJ from Radio 1Xtra, who, as well as getting her name wrong, says he's never watched a TV talent show in his life and that he's all about the music (etc). The heavy-handed authenticity klaxons aside, there's a lot to love about Home, a stomping, slightly bluesy ode to finding a safe place that plays out more like a soulful Ryan Tedder production than the dead-eyed dance will.i.am has been putting his name to of late.
Nicole Scherzinger – Your LoveNicole Scherzinger – Your Love
It can be hard to remember, in among the adverts for shampoo and yoghurts, the recalibrating of the English language (“shamazing!”) and the TV talent show seat-warming, that Nicole Scherzinger is actually a pop star. And, more often than not, a pretty good one at that. She signed a new deal with RCA and scrapped an album she was working on shortly after 2013's lacklustre Boomerang; now Your Love, produced by Tricky Stewart and the Dream, puts the focus firmly back on the songs. Deceptively multi-layered and less desperate-sounding than most of her previous singles (Don't Hold Your Breath aside, obviously), Your Love skips along as lightly as Nicole does in the sun-drenched video. Altogether now: “do-do-do-do-do-do”.It can be hard to remember, in among the adverts for shampoo and yoghurts, the recalibrating of the English language (“shamazing!”) and the TV talent show seat-warming, that Nicole Scherzinger is actually a pop star. And, more often than not, a pretty good one at that. She signed a new deal with RCA and scrapped an album she was working on shortly after 2013's lacklustre Boomerang; now Your Love, produced by Tricky Stewart and the Dream, puts the focus firmly back on the songs. Deceptively multi-layered and less desperate-sounding than most of her previous singles (Don't Hold Your Breath aside, obviously), Your Love skips along as lightly as Nicole does in the sun-drenched video. Altogether now: “do-do-do-do-do-do”.