NEW MUSIC: Marlene - Stay Awake

It's no secret that the Scandinavians produce top notch pop music, but one thing that often eludes them is, alongside all the addictive melodies and sharp synth work, producing anything genuinely vulnerable and emotional. That's often why it's so well constructed - Scandinavian pop prides itself of its musical merit and production above sounding human. 

The voice of Sweden's Marlene however, manages to channel the aches and pains of American popstar JoJo on latest single "Stay Awake". Her voice breaks and hiccups not in a traditionally quirky European pop way, but in a way that suggests that she has listened to a lot of over-emoting US pop singers. With the melodramatic synthpop/R&B hybrid "Stay Awake", Marlene manages to find the happy medium between the perfectly crafted pop songs of her homeland, and a delivery which suggests she has desires to reach a commercially minded audience worldwide, not just a niche European one.

FOR FANS OF: MØ, JoJo, LIZ (Mad Decent)

- Joe Copplestone, 29.01.14

POPDAR - Rizzle Kicks, The 1975 & MØ

Tracks of the week this week come from Brighton party-rap duo Rizzle Kicks, Danish anti-princess of dark-pop MØ and Cheshire's main purveyors of angst rock and sticky electropop, The 1975.

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"Skip to the Good Bit"
RIZZLE KICKS
Taken from Roaring 20s

After a fairly tame lead single from "Roaring 20s", the follow up is a lot more fun. With horns echoing "Down With The Trumpets", trippy hip hop beats and an irresistably groovy piano bassline, it surprises me the duo didn't just "skip to the good bit" and release this first.

No clip of the track online just yet, so check out this live footage from their gig at Alton Towers.

"888 XX"

MØ

Taken from forthcoming EP

After the gritty dirt-pop of last single "Waste of Time", Danish alt-pop singer MØ brings weird-hop refixer Diplo on board to give her distinct sound an urban edge. His clean trappy beats and Miami Bass production flourishes (such as a distinctly HudMo brass section) allow MØ to let out her inner swagger.

"Girls"

THE 1975

Taken from The 1975

If you thought weed-anthem "Chocolate" was the happy-clappy pop single of the album, the liquorice sweet "Girls" could still trump it. Like the long lost missing track from The Breakfast Club soundtrack, the track's 80s pop/rock vibe is infectious, with guitars chirping like birds over the synth pitter patter in the background. Probably the most straight up guilty pleasure pop song of the album, it gives us just about everything a 1975 fan could want up-front.

MØ - Waste of Time

Danish alternative pop singer MØ, real name Karen Marie Ørsted, showcases a defiant anti-glamourous image in her videos, and an assured emotional rawness in her music. This endearing lack of pretense makes it much easier to see past the 'front' other artists might put up, and see the distinct personality from MØ herself. 

MØ's lyrics and voice are gritty and turbulent, much like her music, which is a crisp yet organic sounding mesh of alternative R&B and electropop favoured by her peers MS MR, the most obvious initial comparison. Arresting vocal stabs punctuate the industrial-flecked verse, and an unusual chorus melody is made memorable by MØ's delirious vocal. In a European alt-pop scene fairly saturated with indie female singers in this field, MØ looks like a keeper.

FOR FANS OF: MS MR, Charli XCX, Purity Ring

MØ - Pilgrim & Maiden

In the sea of wannabe cult-indiepop female singers in 2012, it's rare you find a quality song in the mire of fashionably vague videos and slicks electro-R&B beats. But Danish singer MØ's "Pilgrim" combines jaunty brass hooks with a powerhouse of a chorus and a Purity Ring-esque thud and clatter beat. There's a hint of personality and energy in her vocal when she singer "all the time I just want to fuck it up", and it's refreshing to hear a female indiepop singer do something other than deadpan in 2012. Not that the track will displease any fans of deadpan.

Check out her first single "Maiden" too,  a slightly eerier number that has european singer/songwriter written all over it, and features a gorgeous post-chorus guitar hook and the seductive lyric "my desire is ravaging me..."

FOR FANS OF: Purity Ring, Wild Belle, Charli XCX