But still! I'm here now, and here's my latest round-up of what you should be legally required to listen to (although I've likely been beaten to it by everybody else):
DollFace
Tragic name. I love mid-name capitalisation in most cases. Here I don't. Dollface is pretty bleh as well for a name, but in any case Madame Yulanda Lindsay (ex-member of The Silhouettes - flop pop group that was looking to jump on the retro 60s bandwagon at the end of 2008 but realised that it had really noticed it far too late) is likely going to be one of the biggest newcomers for 2010. Dollface blends some severely catchy electropop with urban influences, and you only have to listen to Miss Jamaica (think a slightly more subtle Disturbia but with a chorus just as massive) to know that this girl is going places. The other tracks on her MySpace show just as much potential, but Miss Jamaica is the kind of thing that could be #1 for weeks on end (or just the week given the current trend for number ones...) and is definitely one of the tracks of the year so far for me at least! Here's hoping her backing from Popjustice isn't as much of a curse as it has been for some previous Popjustice Almighty artists...
SamSaya
I've been aware of this Indo-Norwegian urban popstress for a while now, but until now I haven't really thought much of her (You may or may not be aware of her previous track Money. It doesn't matter if you aren't because it DEFINES '7/10') as her material just hasn't been that overwhelming. No longer...
ADHD (Forget Me Not) is an urban-pop masterpiece. The production is punchy (although the beat is derivative of something I can't quite put my finger on...can anyone help?), the verses sleek, the bridge a fantastic build to the chorus, and the chorus a half-desperate, half-angry rant against her mental problems and how her indecisive lover really isn't helping things, which rounds off with a gloriously simple and brain-dead yet brain-dominating hook consisting of 'love me' repeated over that spectacular beat. With the right promotion this could get SamSaya a good hit in the UK as well as across the Atlantic, but if she wants anything more she'll need to improve the other material...until then, I'm more than happy to deal with SamSaya's shouts against a poor attention span.
Tiësto
Until this album I really did not count myself as a Tiësto fan at all. Thank you Spotify for allowing me to correct this oversight...Kaleidoscope is stunning. Make no mistake about it, it has to go down as one of the albums of 2009, and is the less well-known but vastly superior equivalent to David Guetta's One Love. Where David Guetta went for the R&B stars (Akon, Kelly Rowland, Estelle, Kid Cudi, will.i.am etc.), Tiësto has gone for left-field, more alternative collaborations - although that's not to say there aren't any stars on here (Nelly Furtado, Calvin Harris, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party anybody?), but tracks with Jonsi of Sigur Ros, Sneaky Sound System, Tegan & Sara and Emily Haines of Metric prove far more rewarding listens than those by artists the average person on the street has probably heard of...
Actually, I lie. Album highlights Kaleidoscope, I Will Be Here and Feel It In My Bones may be, but none of them come close to the throbbing, pounding dark electro of Who Wants To Be Alone, with Furtado's yearning and insecure coos over the top making the whole enterprise a gorgeous yet uneasy affair. It's a sound predominant throughout the album, and to have created such a dark yet lush album serves as testimony to Tiësto's skills as a producer -indeed, the sound is so cohesive that the Okereke track, It's Not The Things You Say, with its bright clinky production, sounds entirely out of place and much too saccharine for its position on the tracklisting, turning what on its own is a good track into one of the weaker moments of the album, especially in between two contemplative instrumentals.
Kaleidoscope is a triumph of electro for 2009, with some fantastic collaboration choices and an almost flawless set of tracks. This stands as one of my favourite surprises of the year given Tiësto's track record for tired trance, and is an absolute must-listen for fans of dark, brooding electro.
9/10
Lady GaGa
SWEET JESUS LADY GAGA. What on earth you were thinking when you went for that album cover over the absolute GENIUS artwork we got a preview of in July I will never know (that font? SRSLY?), but at least you made up for it with Bad Romance, which has to go down as the best cover of Poker Face to date (and is released on iTunes tomorrow, squee!). A full arms-in-the-air shout out to relationships that just aren't destined to work, BR must be worshipped for outdoing its original inspiration (can we get a mash-up up in this bitch?) as well as giving full scope for what I hope will be the best video of 2009. Alejandro is also spectacular, and I'm metaphorically salivating (not yet literally. You may be my electro-Jesus GaGa, but you are not yet amidst the heights of La Roux and Prince, my dear.) for the other tracks that Fame Monster has yet to deliver us. We NEED more popstars who treat album re-releases as almost entire new albums unto themselves, GaGa has demonstrated that everybody wins when this happens.
Except Heidi Slimani and her reputation of course.
And with that, I bid you farewell until whenever. December probably given my track record...
I am pleased you have broken that track record.
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