The playlist - pop: Lovestarrs, Rixton and Své

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jul/28/the-playlist-pop-lovestarrs-rixton-and-sve

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Rixton - Wait On Me

Rixton frontman Jake Roche – son of Let's Do Sex hitmaker Shane Richie and Coleen 'one of The Nolans' Nolan – is proof you needn't always be intimidated about following in your parents footsteps. Last week Roche and his band Rixton – who are managed by Justin Bieber enabler Scooter Braun – debuted at number 1 in the UK with their debut single, the ludicrously catchy Me And My Broken Heart, months after the song had sold over half a million copies in the US. This slightly odd release schedule also means that what will be their second single, Wait On Me, is now already online and available to buy "across the pond". As with Me And My Broken Heart, Wait On Me has more than a whiff of Maroon 5 about it but is so expertly precision-tooled that each second seems to introduce a new hook.

Troye Sivan - Happy Little Pill

South African-born Australian Troye Sivan is almost annoyingly precocious. Not only has the 20-year-old singer, actor and – wait for it – professional YouTuber starred in a Hollywood film (X-Men Origins: Wolverine), he's got two million YouTube subscribers, has had over 91 million views of his mixture of self-help and social media-based "vlogs" (Annoying Things People Do On Instagram, for example) and signed to Universal Music last summer. Internet celebrity-turned-pop-star doesn't exactly scream "ooh let's have a listen", but there's a lot to love about his debut single, the gloriously down-tempo, Happy Little Pill. Reminiscent of something off Erik Hassle's recent EP Somebody's Party, it takes the template of Drake's dripfeed sadness but adds in quirky production flourishes and a chorus about the dangers of anti-depressants that's oddly uplifting.

Lovestarrs – Life Is A Bitch

“If you're happy and you know it, life will bite you in the arse,” trills Lovestarrs Sarah McIntosh on the trio's nursery rhyme-esque new single, Life Is A Bitch. Sadly McIntosh probably knows a lot about all that given that she, along with brother Hamish and George Hinton, used to be The Good Natured, a promising major label electropop outfit with a clutch of amazing songs who were swiftly dropped, lost out on releasing their debut album Prism and watched while the backing track for the Madeon-produced Can't Beat The Machines ended up being used for Lady Gaga's Mary Jane Holland. They've since re-grouped as Lovestarrs and will release a debut EP later in the year featuring the slightly odd, cod-reggae of Life Is A Bitch, a song that juxtaposes lilting melodies with McIntosh's clipped delivery of the bittersweet chorus.

Své - Riot

Part-time lifeguard and soon to be full-time pop star Své arrived out of nowhere last October with no label, no manager and no publicist. Thankfully, what she did have was an elegant, Sia-esque epic in the shape of Talking To The Walls, a song that stood out from the crowd because it didn't try to sonically assault you. For the follow-up Riot – which will appear on Své's forthcoming debut album, My Religion – she's dirtied things up a bit, adding a chugging guitar line and some bass-heavy synths to a song that flirts with pop's dubstep obsession circa 2011. It's so good that her ability to elongate the word riot into seven syllables for the chorus is just one of the many impressive things about it.

Chelsea Lankes – Secret

Nashville-based Chelsea Lankes' debut single, 2013's Ghost, was a suitably, ahem, haunting affair – all polite electronic gurgles and delicate vocals. While new single Secret isn't exactly Skrillex, it shifts the tempo up a gear or two, Lanke sighing longingly over bubbling synths and big bouncing drums before the joyous chorus bounds into view. Clearly a fan of dynamics and the idea of delayed gratification, there's a great moment around the 2:55 mark when the song's middle eight descends into wordless sighs before a slight false start, some brilliantly 80s drums and a brief "woo" re-introduce the chorus for one last go round.