The playlist: pop – Marina and the Diamonds, Madeon, Skrillex
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Version 0 of 1. Marina and the Diamonds – Happy Marina Diamandis’s second album Electra Heart, released in 2012, got muddled slightly by arch personas, convoluted concepts and way too much hair dye. It was a shame, because when Marina’s at her best she is just about the best pop star the UK has to offer. She’s also one of the few pop stars who work just as well without all the sonic bells and whistles. Happy, the stately ballad and second single to emerge from her forthcoming third album, Froot, is a case in point. Over a simple piano figure, Marina’s opulent voice is multilayered as she sings the key line: “I’ve found what I’ve been looking for in myself”. When written down, it may carry the whiff of Jessie J, but on record, delivered with conviction, sounds utterly redemptive. In fact, for the most part the song feels like a way for Marina to try and convince herself she’s actually happy – at least until the 2m34s mark, when the key shifts slightly and she sings: “I believe in possibility.” Those words refract like sun from behind a cloud. Madeon – You’re On, feat Kyan It’s been five years since French producer and DJ Madeon released his debut single, Gold, and two years since he scored his first UK top 40 hit with Icarus. In that time he’s remixed The Killers and, er, Pendulum, produced three songs for Lady Gaga’s Artpop album and done some additional fiddling on Coldplay’s Ghost Stories. Not bad for someone who has just turned 20. Somewhere among that he’s also finished his debut album, Adventure, which will house the frenetic sugar rush of new single You’re On. Featuring vocalist Kyan, it’s got all the sonic flourishes you’d expect from a Madeon song – chopped-up and filtered vocals, big spacious synth riffs, a huge drop – but comes enveloped in a sky-scraping chorus that should help it find a nice home on the Radio 1 playlist. Skrillex – Dirty Vibe, feat Diplo, CL and G-Dragon The key thing about the fidgety, sonic assault that is Skrillex’s Dirty Vibe isn’t the head-spinning bass drop that stands in for the chorus, or the fact that Big Bang heart-throb G-Dragon seems to be wearing lollipops as hair bands, but the way it teases us with one of 2015’s prospective megastars. Last November, singer CL, a K-Pop figurehead, and one quarter of girl-band 2NE1, signed with Justin Bieber’s manager, who will oversee her first English-speaking album. Rumoured to feature production from Diplo – who helps out on Dirty Vibe – it’s a tantalising prospect; a fully formed star from a pop world where experimentalism, both sonically and visually, is par for the course. As expected, CL completely owns Dirty Vibe, pulling off every persona, from pig-tailed fashionista to water pistol-toting baddest girl in school. Ekkoes – Last Breath A lot has changed for electropop trio Ekkoes since they first formed. For starters, they’ve changed their name, deciding to ditch previous moniker Echoes as it felt “too rounded and normal”, preferring Ekkoes as it suited the spikier music they’re making now. This slight shift in musical direction was the result of a temporary relocation to a “dingy flat” (their words) in Bucharest, where they absorbed the country’s literature and became obsessed with poet Veronica Micle, whose tragic life – she ended up killing herself in a monastery after the death of the love of her life – influences new single Last Breath. While lines like “If this breath is my last, I hope I die with you” probably won’t fill you with Christmas cheer, the music – all 80s-inspired synths, drum pads and chiming guitars – is still upbeat, like a looser, slightly emotionally drunk Hurts. Bonnie McKee – California Winter The other day I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday hit-maker Roy Wood bemoaned the lack of modern Christmas singles, claiming Mariah’s 1994 hit All I Want for Christmas Is You was the last truly great one. Which is all well and good – that song is a classic – but Wood seems to have forgotten about 2013’s two stone-cold Christmas bangers in the shape of Kelly Clarkson’s warm hug in musical form Underneath the Tree, or Leona Lewis’s yearning One More Sleep. So while this year hasn’t managed to live up to the last’s festive treats – we’ve had a free-to-download Christmas EP from Olly Murs, a Mariah-lite warble from Ariana Grande and even the mooted Saturdays Christmas album has been reduced to just one track – we do now have a new, jingle bell-assisted composition from Bonnie McKee. Most famous for co-penning tracks for others, including most of Katy Perry’s biggest hits, California Winter is her first solo effort since the, well, Perry-esque American Girl. Jaunty in a way that would be unbearable at any other time of year, slathered in girl-group harmonies and sounding like an amalgam of most other Christmas songs, California Winter carries that strange mix of sadness and hope that we can all relate to at Christmas. |