NEW MUSIC: Salt Ashes - Somebody

22 year old Salt Ashes from Brighton, UK, manages to walk the fine line between hipster and just-good-fun pop music with ease. Her debut single "Somebody" sounds like Robyn and the Scissor Sisters engaged in a dance off as Goldfrapp sits aloof in the judges' chair. The track has a pulsating synthpop groove and Salt Ashes' vocal floats in a giddy falsetto before diving into sultry lower range, bringing to mind Alison Goldfrapp.

The "Somebody" EP is out now on iTunes.

FOR FANS OF: Goldfrapp, Robyn, Scissor Sisters

- Joe Copplestone, 25.02.14

NEW MUSIC: Betty Who - Heartbreak Dream

Betty Who's formula for the perfect pop song lies somewhere between the sugary sweet teeny pop of Katy Perry and the bittersweet outsider-anthems of Robyn. But her secret ingredient, what makes her music so uplifting and life affirming, is something neither Katy or Robyn can quite grasp: Actual FAITH in love.

Katy Perry's view of love is 2 dimensional and idealistic. Of course, it has to be; this is stuff marketed at 13 year old girls who just want to hear that love is black and white: you fall in love, it's the best thing ever, and it you break up, it's sad, but you find someone else and all is well again. Robyn's view is much more complex, but definitely borders on cynical. Her songs advise going into every relationship with your past pain fresh in your mind, and are quick to warn that love is nothing if not painful.

Betty Who is 21, 8 years younger than Katy perry and 13 years younger than Robyn, yet she sounds like the only one of the three who sounds like they truly understand love. "Somebody Loves You" was her very own dictionary definition, "All Of You" is about surviving the tough times, and "Heartbreak Dream" is about not surviving them. Peter Thomas's production is utterly heartwrenching and euphoric as always, a glorious cacophony of clattering drums and ricocheting synths, and Betty Who's lyrics, though tragic, are sung triumphantly as if with strength and experience. Most of all, they are sung with the faith that there light at the end of the tunnel. 

And that's what makes Betty the true torch bearer for love in pop music 2014 - Katy ignored the problems, Robyn dwelled on them, but Betty allows them to make her strong. This would be almost unbearably beautiful as a ballad by the way Betty, just saying.

FOR FANS OF: Robyn, Katy Perry, Haim

- Joe Copplestone, 18.02.14

Jake Emlyn - The Wonka Hath Landed (FREE DOWNLOAD)

Anyone who's familiar with eccentric London rapper Jake Emlyn will know that he's been rapping for several years now. It could be argued that his lack of mainstream attention is down to his androgynous and occasionally effeminate style, and his lack of interest in hip hop trends and standards. But what fans of Jake most love about him is that despite the criticism and confusion surrounding his identity, style and genre, he never changes anything about himself and his music.

"The Wonka Hath Landed", lead track and single off his Scandinavian Alien mixtape, is probably his most outlandish and controversial offering to date. Rapping over a Robyn-esque synthpop pulse, Jake Emlyn on "Wonka..." is self-deprecating, crude, tongue-in-cheek yet a lot more confident than the comparatively subdued and dark "My Name's Jake", his previous calling card track.

He paints a defiantly non-gangster image of himself, drolly referring to himself as "white trash like Kate Nash" wearing "skinny jeans so tight that my penis can't breathe". He also makes his outsider status patently clear, spitting at the climax "my spaceship crashed, I'm stranded, the wonka hath landed." It's an opaque metaphor, one that will continue to confound Jake's growing crowd of picketing nay-sayers. But the apocalyptic Vangelis synth lead and grandiose choirs that follow the statement couldn't make the message clearer - Jake's ambitions are considerable, and he's on a mission that cannot be thwarted. As the man himself says in the second verse: "just when you was about to stop listening to rap, I came back with the wickedest track."

Download Jake's brilliant (and free) Scandinavian Alien mixtape by clicking on the cover above.

FOR FANS OF: Robyn, Brooke Candy

Betty Who - High Society (FREE DOWNLOAD)

Hailing from Australia, who seem to be doing pretty well for themselves economically whilst the rest of us weep into our Poundland Rice Krispies, it's no wonder Betty Who sounds so elated. But the dramatic synthpop Ms Who brings overseas is downright infectious, and "High Society" has the euphoric energy to make even the most dreary of us feel high on life. But in fact, it's the burbling basslines taken from Robyn's best shouts, hooks the size of China and a rally for us all to drink "Chardonnay through the day". It's a joyous slice of pop heaven that'll make any europop fan's heart skip a beat, and there's plenty more where that came from on her FREE "The Movement" EP, available to download on her website.

FOR FANS OF: Robyn, CHVRCHES, Florrie

Eli & Fur - Tonight

After their hypnotic indie rave anthem "Sea of Stars" worked its way to the upper regions of my iTunes' 25 most played, I was ready for more Eli & Fur months ago. So that their second online release "Tonight" is just as immediate. A bit grittier, yet also a bit more commercially minded, an electroslab bassline pulsates, and the cut and paste chorus hook is hungry for the dancefloor. The fuzzy, murmered vocals are a bit more audible this time round, giving the track a Little Boots or Sky Ferreira feel. The duo sing "tonight, I'm never ever gonna get you off my mind" and the tragic dancefloor divas role is one that suits them. In fact, they bring their own twins-from-the-shining eerie approach. MORE MORE MORE.

For fans of: Little Boots, Sky Ferreira, Robyn 

A*M*E - Play The Game Boy

It's tracks like this that are really what this blog are about. Pop songs that don't try to avoid being 'cringeworthy' or 'cheesy' (both words are are cheesier to apply in description than to hear examples of, at any rate), and as a result bring the most out of the pop music genre. Specifically, the hooks, the energy and, above all, the sense of fun.

A*M*E is a 17 year old UK pop singer, and the song is somewhat brattish, but innocently charming, tongue-in-cheek... everything that resembles a 17 year old girl. It's K-Pop/electropop mould is cutesy, sugary but full of attack, and it's clumsy 'play the game boy' wordplay is endearing, and I'm damned if I'm calling this a 'guilty pleasure'. I don't feel guilty in the slightest.

The colourful video brought to mind the debut efforts of Little Mix. Of course, Little Mix seem a little bit too mature to pull off a song like "Play The Game Boy", but maybe that's because they've been marketed to sing about believing in themselves and potential ("Wings") and gimmicky takes on love songs ("DNA"). And yet there's more of a marketable prospect in A*M*E then there is in Little Mix.

There's a lot to be said for not taking yourselves seriously after all.

FOR FANS OF: Annie, Robyn, Alphabeat

Elliphant - TeKKno Scene (feat. Adam Kanyama)

Sweden is known for it's weird pop music scene, from The Knife's otherworldly squeals and blips to Robyn's androgynous ghetto princess persona. So it's no surprise to find that Elliphant is from Stockholm. First appearing over here in the UK in an "introducing" article in The Guardian, with an "Eye of the Tiger"-sampling, droning piece of Swede-lectro pop, "In The Jungle", that was a bit hard to swallow, but follow up release "TeKKno Scene" goes down a treat. A moombahton rhythm propels the track underneath Diplo-favoured synth sirens, and Elliphant's distorted rapping sounds like a call to arms and the dance-floor simultaneously. This isn't the last we've heard from her.

Popdar #10: Robyn strikes three times in the same spot.

Isn't she great? Watch this.



Robyn is one girl who definitely doesn't need to get herself together, but the saga of sparkling synthpop anthems that is the "Body Talk" trilogy is awe-inspiring enough to encourage even the downest of the down to get themselves together, and surely that's the point. Body Talk. Talking with your limbs; dancing essentially. Despite comparisons, Robyn isn't like Madonna. She doesn't try to change the world through political stands and self assured controversial statements that she is ill informed to make; she does what she knows.

Let's go back to June. New Robyn album: track 1. We are greeted by the opening pulse of "Don't Fucking Tell Me What to Do" and its defeated refrain of "My drinking is killing me" from the dark, difficult but addictive "Body Talk Pt. 1". Although we didn't know it then, Robyn had already started to heal us. She empathised with us here, and on the tragic masterpiece that is "Dancing on My Own", and she comforted us with a simple four to the floor.

Next stop, "Pt. 2". With the melodramatic "In My Eyes" and stuttering "Include Me Out", Robyn took us out of the four to the floor comfort zone and preached individuality amoungst urgent stop start beats. She told us quite simply "it's gonna be OK". Then she provided further proof with the magical "Hang With Me", the warmest, most comforting track to hit the dancefloor this year.

And now she says she's "Indestructible", but to be honest, that's been proved already. If "Body Talk Pt. 3" is just as good as the genius of Parts 1 and 2, then she'll have proved herself not only as indestructible, but also irreplaceable.