Category: Pop

  • Eliza Doolittle’s catchy new single, “Big When I Was Little,” finds the pop singer/songwriter cheerfully reflecting on the past, reminiscing about growing up. Against hopped-up, punchy beats, reggae flourishes and grooving horns, Eliza sings some of her wittiest lyrics yet. “Sorting through my memories / got naked on the floor / my diaries and scrapbooks…

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  • If you count her live E.P., Live Take, Way in the World is Scottish singer-songwriter/guitarist Nina Nesbitt’s fifth E.P. Like many before her, Nina began her career informally by recording songs in her bedroom and posting videos on Youtube, where she quickly garnered millions of plays. Early on, she met Ed Sheeran and he asked…

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  • In spite of the fact that they co-produced it with the brilliant Stuart Price, I was not expecting much from this album. The duo’s previous album, Elysium, which was released just 10 months ago, just wasn’t very impressive. It was more than a little ambient, lacking the sort of catchy beats we’ve come to expect…

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  • Usually I’m in the know when it comes to up and coming pop stars, but I have to admit that Lorde totally flew under my radar until today. She released an EP called The Love Club during December 2012 — I just bought it from iTunes — but I don’t recall seeing any reviews or…

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  • It’s hard to believe that Sara Bareilles is already on album number three. Alas, her major label debut, Little Voice, was released in 2007. And I’m pretty sure there’s still a radio station somewhere playing its huge hit single, “Love Song,” at any given moment. Of course, her second album, Kaleidoscope Heart, also yielded a…

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  • Stars Dance is Selena Gomez’s highly anticipated fourth album. It’s also her solo debut, following three albums with her band The Scene. The album’s first single, “Come & Get It,” was released on April 8, 2013 and made it all the way to the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her most successful…

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  • Gabrielle Aplin grew up in a small town called Chippenham in Wiltshire, England. Her parents bought her her first guitar when she was just 11 years old. She grew up listening to Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell and she cites them as influences. She’s also a big fan of singer/songwriters like Leonard Cohen and Bob…

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  • “It breaks my heart to love you, it breaks my heart to love you,” croons Editors vocalist Tom Smith matter-of-factly during “Sugar,” the second track on the band’s splendid new album The Weight Of Your Love. Previously, the band have often reminded me of The Killers and Franz Ferdinand, but not so much on this…

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  • Skylar Grey is the alias of American singer/songwriter Holly Brook Hafermann. Her first full-length album, 2006’s Like Blood Like Honey, was released under the name Holly Brook, but during recent years she underwent a transformation and decided to start going by Skylar Grey. According to Wiki, she chose her new name because “it represents the…

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  • Nehedar is what NYC-based singer/songwriter Emilia Cataldo goes by, much the way Natasha Khan calls herself Bat For Lashes or Sarah Assbring calls herself El Perro Del Mar. Let’s face it — it’s trendy for female solo artists to give themselves a cool name these days. But Emilia didn’t just start calling herself Nehedar because…

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  • Daft Punk will undoubtedly be this year’s most successful electronic music duo (even if much of their latest album was produced with live instruments), but Australia’s Empire Of The Sun won’t be kept down under on the charts for much longer if there’s any justice in this world of pop. Just listen to “Alive,” the…

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  • I started covering Paola & Chiara over a decade ago when I was writing a world music column called Import Zone for Lollipop magazine. (I couldn’t find every column I wrote about them in, but I did manage to find the one with my review of their 2002 album Festival, which you can read here:…

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  • Austra hail from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, but chances are you probably already know that. After all, their 2011 debut, Feel It Break, was listed on numerous critics’ best of 2011 lists, following a year of positive reviews. The Toronto Star and New York even named it the best album of the year. Basically, Feel It…

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  • The new single by Editors, “A Ton Of Love,” is up-tempo song taken from their latest album, The Weight of Your Love. Usually Editors remind me of The Killers and Franz Ferdinand, but this particular track reminds me of Springsteen, given its potent drumming, the tone of Tom Smith’s moving vocals and the shimmering horns.…

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  • In 2008 Nouvelle Vague co-founder/musician Marc Collin did a side-project album called Hollywood, Mon Amour. The album featured songs from ’80’s movies covered Nouvelle Vague style, meaning that they were the sort of covers that are often drastically different than the original versions of the song, though care is taken when making these interpretations because…

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