What a woman! Ronika has been a long time favorite of mine and consistently delivers polished disco classics with a modern twist. Not only has she delivered Best Album of 2014 contender Selectadisc, she has decided to release another EP of tunes in December! Now that's what Qthousand4teen is all about!
The first single off that EP is title track "Marathon", another hit waiting to happen, mixing all the best parts of the 70's with a 2014 funky sheen that screams "Take me to the dance floor!" Definitely a highlight on Ronika's track record and just proves that sometimes the best way to make music is to get down and dirty with the synths yourself. Who knows, Roni might even outdo Beyoncé by releasing a second album before the year is up!
Say Lou Lou happen to be those two lovely ladies above. At first, you would probably think they were just your typical models that look very much alike making generic pop music. But they are so SO much more than that. Miranda & Elektra Kilbey-Jansson (Now those are a couple of superstar names) are in fact twins. They are the daughters of music experts Steve Kilbey and Karin Jansson. As such, the girls are half-Australian and half-Swedish.
Let's take that in for a second. HALF-AUSTRALIAN AND HALF-SWEDISH! Two of the world's greatest music suppliers combined. That's like if they were the love-children between Gabriella Cilmi and Tove Lo. Or like Dannii Minogue and Icona Pop.
LIKE THE CHILDREN OF KYLIE MINOGUE & ROBYN! *The world just imploded from that merging of pop*
Thankfully, their music kind of sounds like a mix of all those things. They popped up in 2012 as Saint Lou Lou with "Maybe You", a lush electronic ballad that sounds like it's gliding on ice. The girls deliver heartbreak and melancholy in the most beautiful way and solidified their status as the new lovelorn sirens on the scene.
Since then, the girls have decided to change their name (probably for trademark reasons) and continue their tradition of amazingly beautiful love songs that involve some torrid love affair among the girls. Just look at "Julian" and their cover of Tame Impala's "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards." Their appreciation for epic storytelling and cinematic styling certainly brings them to a higher status than other singers with more fame (ahem, Miley?). They also have the uncanny ability to create B-sides that at some times overshadow the actual single.
This is "Beloved." It's the B-side for Say Lou Lou's 2013 single "Better in The Dark." Now, that song was grade-A pop perfection. Literally one of the best. But "Beloved" though?!?! The soft cooing synths. That chorus of pure heartache. That bridge of anger and frustration. AND IT'S A BALLAD! Never before has a ballad been so close to being the song of the year, but Say Lou Lou managed to do it.
Clearly, these girls were meant for superstardom and became the premiere twin act of 2014, beating out the likes of Tegan & Sara, Jedward, and The Veronicas. Say Lou Lou were so great that they even got nominated for the BBC Sound of 2014 Poll alongside other great acts like Ella Eyre and Chlöe Howl and frankly, they should have won but Sam Smith mania took over the world. Oh well, they did give us "Everything We Touch" and "Peppermint" to show how ready they were to rule the airwaves. Seriously, the lush power ballad should become the new Game Of Thrones theme song, especially since the girls "trained dragons"#DanaerysTargaryenRealness.
With 2014 almost at an end, Miranda and Elektra decided to throw us a curveball. Not only are the girls releasing their debut album Lucid Dreaming on Valentine's Day (which is a missed opportunity to name it SLAY LOU LOU), they have decided to take their talents to the dance floor. Their new cut "Games For Girls" with Norwegian producer Lindstrøm is pure disco voguing bliss as the beat goes from hypnotic Italo disco to euphoric bouncing throughout. Guess ballads aren't the only things Say Lou Lou have mastered and I'm already calling their album as the best of 2015!
New Zealand has a notorious reputation for hiding away amazing pop music in its land. We all know the success story that was Lorde and her international takeover as a the premiere indie-gone-properly huge artist of 2013. However, in the past, we got some pretty great music from the Land next to the Down Under including excellent debut albums by Zowie, Kimbra, and Ladyhawke (best of 2008 to be exact). It comes as no surprise that a new Kiwi act would come to add to New Zealand's roster of talent in 2014 and Broods has done just that.
The brother-sister duo composed of Caleb and Georgia Nott first popped up toward the end of last year with their debut single "Bridges." The delicate piano-led fragility of the song gave way to the brightest shimmer of a chorus I have heard in a while. It took all the great parts of Lorde's lyricism and off-kilter musicality, thanks to her collaborator Joel Little working with Broods, with a strong electronic production that makes it instantly relatable. With that, Broods had become one of the most anticipated acts of 2014 in my books.
filthypop.net
Since the turn of the year, Broods has managed to not only edge up their style a bit, but also claim best EP cover thanks to their ingenious use of glass. Top that Britney! But the songs are just as great, from Never Gonna Change to Sleep Baby Sleep, the siblings tackle a wide variety of genres with effortless confidence and fragility. All this makes their debut album one of the best of 2014.
If you needed any more convincing, we still have the first single "Mother & Father" to obsess over. Without a doubt, the song is Broods finest, a heartfelt declaration of growing up but never losing one's love for their parents. Georgia's voice glides along the punchy yet crystalline production that could easily make their album Evergreen a critical and mainstream success. "Mother & Father" has all the potential to crossover into a major international hit and I believe Broods could easily join the Hall of New Zealand Music Fame that we have all come to love.
Today marks a momentous occasion. After winning an MTV contest to see Charli XCX in Brooklyn at an intimate show, I finally managed to talk to her. It involved us fangirling over each other's looks, casually reminiscing over the past year of music, AND SHE FUCKING HUGGED ME!!!! #blessed It also involved us talking about her role as the true London Queen and my future as her successor once I go abroad for a semester there!
It was only fitting that this magical encounter involved Charli premiering a new song and playing it live for the first time just for me (I wish)!!!! That song is "London Queen," the third song to be taken from her second (third) album Sucker, which unfortunately won't be out until December. But, if all the songs on the album end up sounding like "Boom Clap" and "Break The Rules," I think it may be well worth the wait. "London Queen" sees Charli totally giving up her original Tumblr-tronic dark wave persona and going all in with the Kim Wylde-esque punk-pop with some old-school Britpop stylings as well. All in all, this is a catchy ass song and those "OI!" bits were positively electrifying live. Until we meet again Ms. XCX!
You may have heard an Elle King song without even realizing it. Her signature brand of R&B country music has caught the attention of a lot of people like the producers of Mad Men and Mob Wives. The true tastemakers if you will. The real appeal of Elle is she is truly a hilarious and charming performer with material to back it up.
Her style doesn't exactly fit the mold of NSOT Pop (tears on the dance floor, 90's bitch would be the perfect description of that) but her new single "Ex's and Oh's" is catchy in all the right ways, better than some other songs that have come out this year (looking at you Cheryl!). But that's not why we're here, it's this cover of Khia's seminal classic "My Neck, My Back." It's hard to do good country covers but Elle King manages to do it. "I Was There" by Le Grind next please?
