I am awash in an overflow of wonderful exuberant beautiful music. It’s been a few weeks since the last update and pop music waits for no one, releasing song after stellar song till my iPod threatened to crack open with the virtual strain (it is so melodramatic at times). So to release some of the pressure, and share some of the musical gems I have unearthed, here’s this week’s five top picks from a crowded jostling field of contenders.
SLEEP PARTY PEOPLE: “We Were Drifting on a Sad Song”
The bunny suits are a dead giveaway. Sleep Party People are one of those wonderful bands that doesn’t play by the usual rules of glamour pop, their faces adorning every last inch of their releases. In fact, it is hard to find a photo of this engagingly idiosyncratic band that doesn’t feature them in bunny masks and hoodies, and frankly, I like it that way. It would be almost like seeing Maris from Frasier, or Wolowitz’s loud-mouthed mum from The Big Bang Theory if they were to remove their face coverings at this point.
And it suits the kind of dreamy, ethereal idiosyncratic pop that they make. The Danish band, which is a side project of Brian Batz, a one man musical prodigy who creates the music in the sanctity of his bedroom makes the kind of pop that defies the ability of the English language, expansive though it is, to adequately describe it.
Suffice to say, it is broad ranging, otherworldly intensely melodic music with haunting voices woven in, over and through it in the most magical way possible. It is the sort of music you would put on at 3 in the morning as you sit in your lounge room savouring the meaning of life. (I have never done this but if I did, this is the music I would play as an accompaniment; as I never intend to test this, you will have to take my word for it).
They are unlike anything you will have heard in a long time, and the perfect way to carry yourself off to somewhere other than the grainy reality of every day life.
ZOWIE: “My Calculator”
It’s time to get up and dance people! Again.
Zowie, a New Zealand-based devotee of electro clash, made quite the splash with her releases of the delightfully aggressive songs (yes it is possible to have the two sit comfortably cheek by jowl when you’re as talented as she is), “Smash It” and “Bite Back” which oozed attitude and sass, and an innate danceability that proved hard to resist.
So no one really tried. Admittedly the music wasn’t rocket science, it was highly unlikely the meaning of her lyrics will never be debated by philosophers in learned societies, and you could well argue it’s been done before by the like of Goldfrapp and Peaches, but does it matter when she does it this well? It’s bright shiny pop that is catchy as ebola.
Now Zowie, who goes by the time Zoe Fleury when applying for credit cards at her bank, is back to tempt us onto the dance floor again with this full on pop confection that roars into your head and refuses to disappear. Ever. Again, best not to concentrate too much on the lyrics but when have the really catchy dance songs ever worried too much about that anyway?
Best you simply park your brain in neutral, surrender to the euphoric fun of this driving slice of fuzzy melodic dance floor pop and lose yourself in its swirls, dips and bouncy beats for three and a half blissful minutes.
MARBLE SOUNDS: “Good Occasions”
There is a soft sweet beauty to this music that belies the sometimes bittersweet lyrical content of this band’s gorgeously produced music.
Reminding me of bands like Bombay Bicycle Club and Pinback (a band I love and adore after stumbling across them one night on ABC Australia’s late night music program, Rage) but totally their own creation, Marble Sounds, which is helmed by talented Belgian Pieter Van Dessel, has a richness to it than engaged me from the word go.
It is a curious experience listening to this song. On one hand it has a stark stripped back emotional core to it that washes over you like the gentle melancholy of truths realised in the wee small hours of the morning. On the other, there’s an uplifting magnificent sense of hope, a quality in the vocals that acknowledges pain but refuses to be bowed by it.
It is a seductive, compelling mix and explains why this band has garnered a following from listeners of intelligent, emotionally articulate pop.
ICONA POP: “I Love It”
You want heart-poundingly powerful beats coupled with the most defiant of break up lyrics and want to dance yourself in the process? Then this song from Sweden’s immensely talented Icona Pop, which is made up of Caroline Hjelt and Aino Jawo, is your ticket to dancing over the grave of any and all broken relationships littering your past. (Even if you’re well over them; you can likely find some residue of resentment that will allow you to totally tap into the deliciously angry forcefulness of the song.)
It has attitude and then some which is married perfectly to a beat so all consuming and powerful you wonder just what an ex did to incite some hook-laden vitriol? Frankly I don’t care. All I know is that the song, written by the up-and-coming pop prodigy, Charli CXC, sweeps all before it with blinding passion and unstoppable force.
No word yet on when we can expect a full album from the Scandinavian twosome but if this song is any indication of what they’re capable of, then it’s a high likelihood you won’t see much of me when it is released. I will be the one with the headphones super glued to my head listening to this album on repeat. And repeat. And… you get the idea.
ALANIS MORRISSETTE: “Guardian”
Alanis Morrissette is no longer the angry spurned woman who breathed such vengeful life into the multi-million selling cultural phenomenon of her debut album Jagged Little Pill, released way back in 1995. She has found lasting love, got married to Mario “MC Soulway” Treadway in 2010, and had a child, all facets of her life that are as far removed from the angry jilted lover she once was as you could hope for.
And while you may think that might make her upcoming new album Havoc and Bright Lights, which is due to drop in August this year, a rather sedate affair, I say think again. Though her focus may have changed and the lyrics of “Guardian” certainly reflect that, the passion that propelled her forward remains as fiercely incandescent as ever.
That is what truly sets this remarkable artist apart from the pack. She may not command the charts like she once did, but I get the feeling that doesn’t unduly trouble her. She is making music that is true to her artistic vision, that possesses all the searing honesty and heartfelt emotional expression she has always evinced, and “Guardian” is as rich a track as she has ever produced.
It is so good in fact that waiting for the album, once again produced by Guy Sigsworth, the producing talent behind Frou Frou and Bjork, will be a long wait indeed.
So which song held you up by sonic gunpoint and is making you listen to it over and over and … yeah you get the idea?