Marina and the Diamonds

Okay, I’ll be the first to admit it, I am a true believer when it comes to Marina and the Diamonds. She is a real talent, a rare thing for today’s pop queens (lady Gaga, and Katy Perry excluded, and Beyonce if you consider her Pop in the vein of the aforementioned) Now I’m not saying that Marina is on the stature of these new pop giants but she should be in my opinion just based on her debut the “Family Jewels”. I always wondered why Marina never got any air time on the radio in the States, hell I was even surprised to see here do a show at the famous Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey (A show that I wanted to go to, but didn’t want to go solo), but now that question is asked even more seeing that her new album Electra Heart, Marina is more pop/radio friendly than ever.

Electra Heart, according to Marina is supposed to be a concept album, starring her as the title character Electra Heart, a trashy American pop star, in which the album chronicles her rise and fall. Well I have to say if this is truly a concept album, the concept is lost. Some of the songs show off this character, portraying her as a selfish, self-centered bitch, who doesn’t believe in love, while others are just your run of the mill modern day pop songs. I'm not saying that these are bad songs, because they’re not, but they don’t fit into the concept of the concept album that Marina thinks she has put out. See the thing about concept albums, is that the songs have to be consistent to the theme.

Musically, this album is pretty good. This is a departure from her piano based Family Jewels debut album. This is strictly a pop album, and not a bad one I must say.  Some of the standouts on Electra Heart are “Primadonna”( The song that best displays the Electra heart character) ,” Living Dead”,” Valley of the Dolls”, “Starring Role”, and “Fear and Loathing”.  Inexplicably another good song, the promo single “Radioactive”, which was the world’s first taste of Electra Heart was left off the album. I wonder who makes these dumb decisions?

For a young artist so obsessed with American culture, negative and positive, hopefully Marina finds what she is looking for which is acceptance from the American mainstream.  Hopefully on her journey to gain this acceptance she integrates elements of her debut with her new mainstream pop sound. If she does that she can really be something special. Give this one a chance and you might enjoy it.

Zowie

I first encountered New Zealand’s  Zowie in 2011 with her  song  “Bite Back”. I thought it was a very cool song,  and I wanted to hear more from Zowie, and I did as she dropped more songs  sporadically over the year of 2011. The songs were good, but there was just one problem, there was no album ready to be released. For someone who was causing such a stir online, setting fire to many popular music blogs, there was no set release date for an album, as the truth was it was still being created. It turns out that from 2010 with her debut song “Broken Machine” to early 2012 she had yet to put out an album. Well now things have changed and the album is out, but can she still carry over her initial buzz over to a much delayed full length album?

Love Demolition (also a song) is a pure Pop firecracker.  While Zowie herself may sound silly at times with the her Katie White of the Ting Tings style of delivering vocals, while occasionally going over the top, delving seemingly head first into nonsense,  the songs are very catchy and after you move past the silliness , they grow on you.  If you’re looking for serious inflection, or depth in lyrics from Zowie on this album don’t bother trying to find it. The girl is good at one thing, making fun Pop songs, and that should not be frowned upon. The Standouts on this album is “Love Demolition”, “Smash It,”  “Anodyne” and “Idiotize”, among others.  Overall the album is good party music, the only negative about this album is that songs like “Bite Back”, and “Love and Hate”, originally used to generate interest in Zowie and the Love Demolition album  are absent the final cut. Those songs along with “Broken Machine” could have been used to replace a few “fillers” and make this a more solid album as there are songs on this album that just seem to be included just to fill space.  Pick this one up and judge for yourself.

Chairlift

Chairlift first came to our collective consciousness   with one of the first commercials for Apple’s I-pod Nano 2008 with their song “Bruises” off of their debut album “Do You Inspire You”. Not only did the marketing campaign work for the Apple product, but it worked for the band Chairlift, or at least it worked on me as I listened to their album just based on the song featured in the commercial. While I enjoyed some songs off of “Do You Inspire You” I found it kinda boring. Now they have returned with their new album “Something”, and I must say that Chairlift have put out one of the best albums of 2012.

There is something about “Something”. Believe me when I tell you this one of those albums that you can put on and everything, every song just flows together perfectly. Maybe I have to revisit “ Do You Inspire You” but to me it seems like Chairlift ( who is now a duo)  just reached their full potential.  

Okay here it is, while this album as a whole is great there are some songs that I have selected as standouts. “ Amanaemonesia", “Sidewalk Safari”, “Met Before”, “Ghost Tonight”, and “Cool as Fire “ are all great songs. Honestly there are plenty of songs off this album that I could’ve chosen as standout songs. I strongly suggest that you check this one out, ASAP!

Sleigh Bells

I've been waiting for this for a long time. I first heard of the Sleigh Bells ( consisting of singer Alexis Krauss and guitarist/producer Derek Miller) on an alternative music section of a hip hop message board last year and fell in love with their song "Crown on the Ground", even with the sometimes painful poor quality of their demo songs. Their official debut album 'Treats' features some previously unheard songs mixed with some all ready known songs that are either heavily touched up, retitled, or reworked all together, such as the demo song "Beach Girls" with was transformed into "Kids" with children replacing Alexis and Derek on the speaking breaks during the song. I have to say that I like the untouched original better.

The standout tracks are "Crown on the Ground", "Rill, Rill", "Tell Em" "A/B Machines" among others. This is a good album that manages to polish the Sleigh Bells sound but also maintain the rawness that people feel in love with. The one draw back is that the album is very short at only 32 minutes, making 'Treats' seem more like glimpse of what the Sleigh Bells are capable of instead of a proper more expansive debut. Then again the album like the music itself, short and sweet or should I say loud. This is a hot one so pick it up now!!!

Marina and the Diamonds

I will say this about this Welsh vocalist, the girl has serious swag!!! Marina and the Diamonds is actually Marina as a solo act, and the Diamonds are her fans. Yes she is serious, very serious. The young lady who is terribly beautiful by my standards has some serious pipes and brash, hold nothing back lyrics to match. A lot of the music on "The Family Jewels" is piano based mixed with electro, which is pleasing to the ear. The only problem that I have with Marina is that with her vocal style it is very easy for her to come off as way too over the top, and it doesn't help that a lot of the songs feel like they're part of a bigger musical theatrical production.

The standout songs on this album are " Guilty", "Shampain", "I'm Not a Robot", and the seemingly anti- American anthem "Hollywood" ( which is just too damn catchy to hate) among others.

The over the top nature of Marina's style may hold her back in the States, but I hope she breaks through as this girl has serious talent, and can give some of our starlets a run for their greenbacks. Heck even if she wasn't talented her awesomely silly personality would make up for it. And since I don't think there is a relativity bad song on this album I say pick it up. You have my blessing.

New Young Pony Club

It was 2008 when I found New Young Pony Club on a now defunct International music video channel ( IMF) and instantly fell in love with their single "Ice Cream" and their album "Fantastic Playroom". Ever since then I've been keeping tabs on the Brits, waiting for them to release a follow up record. As you can imagine I was elated to hear new music from the nu-rave band, and I was not disappointed with the singles "Chaos" and "Lost a Girl". So I get the new album "The Optimist" expecting to pick up on more of the Pony Club fun, but not too fast Mr. Starks. While this album has it fun parts it's much more mature than Fantastic Playroom, which is not necessarily as bad thing although some of the songs rounding out the end of the album can be a complete snooze fest which is not a Pony Club trait. I like that they "grew up" but at some point during this album , it seemed they forgot what made them so attractive in the first go around...the fun.

The standout tracks are as follows; "The Optimist", "Lost a Girl", "Stone", "Dolls" and "Chaos" among others. Don't get me wrong here, I did like the album and did appreciate that Tahita Bulmer ( the lead singer) vocal abilities have improved since Fantastic Playroom. It seems like this time around they want to be taken more seriously and trust me these this club is serious. Pick up the "The Optimist" and enjoy.

Fan Death

I've been keeping an eye on these lovely ladies since late 2009 when I discovered them. They're not the best singers, and when they harmonize it doesn't always work out as you might find some horrendous results if you search some of their songs on Youtube, but it seems they picked their best songs for their 5 song EP "A Coin for the Well"

The first three songs on the EP are the real sstandouts, as they really represent their "post-disco" sound the best, with Reunited being the best of the bunch, although with it being one of my favorite songs of 2009 I'm kinda biased. After the third song " Power Surge" ( another great song) it goes as down hill as a 5 song EP can go. Track 4 "Soon" sounds like a rip off hip-hop/R&B fused with electro sound gone wrong. I praise them for changing things up but its not what I expect from Fan Death. The final song "The Son will Rise" is a good way to close the EP especially after "Soon", although it doesn't match the first 3 songs.

Overall this is a good effort from the Fan Death ladies, although it would have been stronger if this was a 6 song set and included "Veronica s Veil". If anything this makes me want to see what they can do with an LP, which I can't wait to hear. Until then find "A Coin for the Well" and get it!