Category: Pop
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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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The French band Indochine have now been at it for 32 years and are usually regarded in the way people regard musical gods like U2, The Beatles and Johnny Cash. In other words, people consider their music a form of high art and deem them music royalty. Well, their fans do anyway. And they have…
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Shadows is the third album by Australian singer/songwriter Lenka. Her name might not sound familiar, but you’ve surely heard her music as it’s been featured on Grey’s Anatomy and in the movie Moneyball, as well as appearing in advertisements for Apple, Coke and Old Navy. Billy Crystal even sang part of “The Show” — a…
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Boards Of Canada have always put out fascinating music. While much of it has been relatively mellow, many of their songs being downright ambient, there’s also been a sense of foreboding about many of their compositions. Their long-awaited new album Tomorrow’s Harvest has all of these elements. There are some fairly calm songs, but most…
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The last album by CSS, otherwise known as Cansei de Ser Sexy, was 2011’s La Liberacion. While “I Love You” and “Hits Me Like A Rock” were uber-catchy pop gems, the rest of the Brazilian band’s third album felt somehow misguided. And their second album, Donkey, was only slightly better. Their first album, however, was…
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Ben Lee’s new album, Ayahuasca: Welcome To The Work, was inspired by an experience he had while tripping on the extremely strong hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca. He’s described the experience as life-changing and he wanted to pay tribute to the plant as a result. If it sounds silly, well, yes I suppose it is a bit…
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Lou Doillon might be unknown to most people here in the United States, but in her native France she’s practically royalty, being the daughter of the famous French singer/actress Jane Birkin and the acclaimed film director Jacques Doillon. She’s also the half-sister of actress/singer Charlotte Gainsbourg and step-daughter of the late French singer/songwriter Serge Gainsbourg.…
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If you’ve ever wished that Camera Obscura would do away with their catchy hooks and up-tempo tunes then your prayers have been answered. Sort of. Here’s what singer Tracyanne Campbell told The Scotsman about the making of their new album, Desire Lines: “There are a couple of pop songs on the record but I was…
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I tried but I just couldn’t get into Demi’s last album, Unbroken. With a slew of guests, including Missy Elliott, Timbaland, Dev, Iyaz and Jason Derulo, I felt like the album was trying too hard to do too many different things. She’d already had a massive hit with the song “Skyscraper,” which was a gorgeous…
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Alyssa is a Canadian singer/songwriter who was born in Edmonton, Alberta and grew up in Brampton, Ontario. She’s been rising to fame in several countries ever since she first released her song “Alone Again” in 2011. The song immediately caught people’s attention because it samples parts of “Alone” by Heart. As for how she got…
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Spacehog’s last album was 2001’s Hogyssey, a criminally under-rated album. But, then, if you ask me, all of Spacehog’s albums have been criminally under-rated. Their 1995 debut, Resident Alien, sold very well, but it really only spawned one hit, “In The Meantime,” which also happens to be their only U.S. hit ever, so, sadly, they…
