DANIEL RASMUSSEN

Pop song of 2013?

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:14:23 -0700

Ever since Popjustice premiered this a few weeks ago, we really haven’t been able to get enough.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. MDNGHT is a Mancunian music collective with an absolutely gorgeous lead singer.

2. He also has the voice of baby Jesus.

3. MDNGHT also clearly know how to craft a perfect pop song.

4. The song is entirely in falsetto but never feels laborious. THIS IS A FEAT OF ITS OWN

5. ‘I Will Lead You On’ is smart, sexy, lightweight, and it’s no doubt the song of the year for us so far (YES it’s better than the Daft Punk one).

The generous chaps have given this up for free download on their site so you must save-as. We can’t wait to hear more.

R.I.P.

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:48:41 -0700

Where do we start.

We knew this whole greatest hits thing was the beginning of the end, but it doesn’t make it much easier that today we have lost undoubtedly one of the greatest pop bands of all time. These 5 girls had the charisma that so many popstars are devoid of, with the perfect amount of sex and a huge dose of horrible dance sychronization.

We had them for 10 years, and to be honest, the Girls Aloud we’ve seen in the past few months is not a Girls Aloud we want anymore. It’s the end, and it feels like the end. We got 10 years, hundreds of perfect pop songs and countless amazing pop memories.

We love you, Girls Aloud.

We can’t even rank the best Girls Aloud songs. They are too brilliant. Here’s our list of the most ESSENTIAL PERFECT AMAZING Girls Aloud songs.

Sound of the Underground
No Good Advice
The Show
Love Machine
Wake Me Up
Graffiti My Soul
Deadlines & Diets
Real Life
Long Hot Summer
Biology
Whole Lotta History
Watch Me Go
Wild Horses
Models
Swinging London Town
Nobody But You
Crazy Fool
Singapore
Something Kinda Ooooh!
Money
Call The Shots
Can’t Speak French
Girl Overboard
Close To Love
Fling

Hoxton Heroes
The Loving Kind
Untouchable (Album Version)
Rolling Back The Rivers In Time
Something New
On The Metro

Not bad.

Happy 5th birthday.

Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:00:00 -0700

What a classic.

FEB PLAYLIST

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:19:00 -0700

Let us rise for Mat Maitland & Big Active

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:22:00 -0700

By now, many have seen Kenzo’s latest video for their SS13 Resort collection, called ‘Electric Jungle’. It is, of course, up to standard and amazing. The idea of a new Kenzo campaign is usually enough to send me over the edge. But this time, when the notification popped up, I had no idea I would be in for this:

[VIDEO] Welcome to the KENZO Resort 2013 Electric Jungle youtu.be/vg4XjG_peXA a film by @matmaitland @bigactive

February 18, 2013

MAT MAITLAND.

BIG ACTIVE.

My favorite brand at the moment and my favorite graphic design team ever have TEAMED UP.

Big Active is one of the most brilliant graphic design teams out there. Mat Maitland is kind of the “head honcho” of it all. Their consistent brilliance has turned slowly turned me into a die-hard fan.

That one record you always put at the front of the stack so it’s displayed like a work of art? Yep, they designed it. Everything Big Active has put out over the years has been remarkably consistent, full of energy, visually/conceptually stunning.

In a budget-less music industry, artwork and packaging sometimes seem like the easiest sacrifice… but it’s clear that Big Active still believes that artwork and illustration is just as important as the music, and when they partner with an artist, the results are always well worth it.

Let’s take a look at five of my favorite Big Active projects so we can fully comprehend their brilliance together.

2003
Sugababes
“Three” campaign

As a 12-year-old in a post-Steps delirium, at some point in October 2003 I browsed the singles section of amazon.co.uk in search of some new artist to obsess over. I immediately stumbled upon the cover for ‘Hole in the Head’ and I instantly knew I had to have it. I had no idea at the time who the Sugababes were, or what ‘Hole in the Head’ sounded like (it turned out to be brilliant, so no worries). But it was the striking artwork (and striking Filipino woman) on the front cover that earned it a spot in my digital shopping basket.

Sugababes ended up becoming one of my favorite pop acts of all time, and I have Big Active to thank for that. I have every CD from the ‘Three’ era and, artwork-wise, it remains one of my favorite album campaigns ever. Looking back now, the bright colors contrasted with the chain-link/checkerboard (“punk”, “industrial”, etc.) elements represented exactly what Sugababes were at that time: the pop group whose music was glossy but still had the rough-around-the-edges looks. It was OK to like even though they were pop and you were a skinhead or whatever. The artwork represented that balance perfectly. Too bad they couldn’t keep it up (we all know what happened next).

The campaign also showed how much greatness could happen if record companies just splashed out on branding and design. There is no genre that can bend the rules of design like pop; there are no limits. If only more record labels knew! They could have prevented tragedies like this:

*grinds teeth*

2005
Annie
“Anniemal” campaign

Annie’s logo is one of my favorite logos of all time. On every piece of artwork from this campaign, the photos are great but when placed with the logo they are striking.

If you can get your hands on the “Anniemal” double LP, do it. The artwork inside is magnificent.

2007
Goldfrapp
“Seventh Tree” campaign

Big Active has been creative partners with Goldfrapp on all of their campaigns since “Black Cherry”, but this deluxe package of “Seventh Tree” is a personal favorite.

The colors may have been dialed down, but the grandiosity was not. Everything down to the papyrus coloring book was meticulously crafted.

Goldfrapp’s campaigns are a real example of Big Active’s all-around philosophy: every album, single, promo CD, poster, cardboard cutout is continuous. From idea conception to the last show of the tour, the image is consistent. It seems so simple but it’s unbelievable how rarely we see this these days.

2010
Marina & The Diamonds
“The Family Jewels” campaign

As with Annie’s, the Marina campaign is a lesson in using distinctive, bold, enigmatic fonts. The Rankin photos are gorgeous, but the use of the font is what really delivers the message. At the time, Marina was the arty anti-popstar, something that you would be able to pinpoint without ever listening to the music.

The Family Jewels back cover with the tracks fanning out is absolutely brilliant.

(Photos: www.bigactive.com)

2010
Mark Ronson & The Business Int’l
“Record Collection” campaign

On paper, this sounds completely obvious and stupid.

- Here we have a record where every song sounds like it’s from a different genre.

- Let’s call it “Record Collection”.

- Let’s make the cover art look like an actual record collection!

But the part you missed is that for every single song on the record they created a separate cover. They then stacked them up (with frayed edges, ring wear and everything) and created a digital record collection that you can check out here. It’s as if you’re actually flipping through Mark Ronson’s record collection! Brilliant.

They also released a boxset with 12 seven-inch singles, one for each song on the record, each with its own cover art. If only every album campaign was given such attention to detail. Let’s take a look at the 7” box… three years on and it remains one of my most coveted music items.

*jaws hits floor*

Points to take away:

Mat Maitland is amazing.

Big Active is amazing.

If you are an artist/brand and partner with them, you will, by transitive property, become amazing.

I want one of those Mark Ronson 7” box sets.

Their campaigns for Basement Jaxx and Beck are also amazing.

Continuity is absolutely essential if you want to successfully broadcast your message.

Check out www.bigactive.com and flip through their portfolio. If you’re not a fan already, take five minutes and I guarantee you will walk away as one.

PVC dreams

Wed, 20 Feb 2013 18:00:00 -0700

We can’t get enough of Acne’s SS13 plastic line. Plastic hats, plastic shoes. A simple, bold statement.

We love that men’s everyday fashion can be more adventurous.

We do wonder how sweaty those things will get in the summer though.

“Fashion doesn’t make you sweat”, etc. - The Fashion World

#LFKVA

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:05:00 -0700

The KRISVANASSCHE man is quietly confident, a man who is focused on intellectual progress and reinvention…

and a man who knows beautiful fucking sunglasses when he sees them.

Let's look at Frank Ocean in Dior Homme from five different angles

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:07:00 -0700

Amazing.

Amazing/Hot.

Amazing.

Why is no one talking about THE mens fashion statement of the Grammys?! Frank Ocean looked immaculate in this Dior Homme varsity jacket/suit hybrid.

Navy blue has for some reason always signified innocence to me, but I’m really starting to appreciate it in a different way… The hue of this jacket is almost a royal blue in the light and it looks gorgeous against his skin.

Frank would have looked amazing in a traditional black suit & tie but I’m glad he took this (semi) risk. It’s about time someone injected a little interesting-but-still-classy into mens’ red carpet fashion.

And well done, Frank. A gorgeous man with a great voice and an immensely important message to share. You make us proud.

8/10.

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 22:00:00 -0700

HIGHS
The entrance.
Kelly fucking Rowland.
Michelle.

LOWS
“Love On Top”. (?!?!?!)
“Baby Boy”.
“Halo”.
The unwarranted trip down Beyonce performance memory lane.

THE VERDICT
We could have done with a generous dose of “Run The World (Girls)”.
Beyoncé is a freak of nature.
Kelly Rowland for Super Bowl 2014.

B'Day

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 15:36:00 -0700

Beyonce is one of our favorite popstars. Top 3, we’d say.

However, we are not deluded. We understand that Beyonce is absolutely ridiculous.

In about three hours’ time we expect the world’s most perfect, balls-to-the-wall entertaining spectacle of 12 minutes’ length.When we thought about the possible songs she could sing, our mind kind of turned into spaghetti. There are just too many amazing Beyonce songs. That leads us to the following list. Here are the 9 best Beyonce songs with videos (we can’t say singles because of her ridiculous ‘video anthologies’).

We do love some others of her songs with videos (‘1+1’, ‘Party’, ‘Freakum Dress’, etc.) but unfortunately those songs are not single-worthy and have absolutely shit videos. So here are her 9 best songs that were singles or songs that were not singles but have videos that would have been alright if they had been accompanying an actual official single.

Let’s put aside the Destiny’s Child controversies, the songwriting credit controversies, the stolen ‘Single Ladies’ choreography, the stolen ‘Countdown’ choreography, the stolen ‘Run The World (Girls)’ Billboard performance, ‘baby-bump-gate’, ‘lipsync-gate’ and let’s listen to these 9 gleaming diamonds of R&B-pop amazingness, right from the mouth of a bonafide, certified motherfucking superfreak of an entertainer.

9.
Deja Vu
(Freemasons Remix
featuring Jay-Z)

‘Déjà Vu’ is a great song. The problem is that as the first single off ‘B’Day’, it needed to sound groundbreaking and, more importantly, nothing like ‘Crazy In Love’. Well, it basically turned out to be ‘Crazy In Love’ part 2 and therefore did not do its job. For a long time we confused this with ‘Déjà Vu’ being a bad song, but we soon came to our senses and realized that ‘Déjà Vu’ is a great song it just wasn’t a good first single.

Also, thank god for the Freemasons.

8.
Single Ladies
(Put A Ring On It)

Only after the legendary 2009 VMA performance did we finally fall in love with this. The dance routine is obviously ‘iconic’ but the best part is obviously the part where she is doing the stop sign / karate thing.

7.
Me, Myself & I

Video: amazing. (Johan “Hung Up” Renck!!!)

6.
Sweet Dreams

An unexpected highlight of the craptacular ‘I Am… Sasha Fierce’ album. The video is still, total shit.

5.
Upgrade U
(featuring Jay-Z)

‘Audemars Piguet ya’.

4.
Baby Boy
(featuring Sean Paul)

This was our favorite song in 7^th grade (OBSESSED). It sounded out of this world. It still sounds out of this world. Less so, but still out of this world.

3.
Dance For You

As far as we’re concerned, this is Beyonce’s magnum sexopus.

The video does not do the song justice.

We sat with the ‘4’ album for THREE MONTHS without listening to this song. One day it came on shuffle. We listened to all six minutes of it approximately 20 times in a row.

We’re glad The-Dream’s demo (identical) version (we all know it exists) hasn’t leaked. The thought of Beyonce ‘penning’ this for her ‘man’ in a moment of lust is too ridiculous to handle and makes the listening experience 65x more enjoyable.

The second verse is probably the most amazing verse of all of Beyonce’s verses.

We pretend she says ‘this is BeyonCex’ (Beyonce + sex) even though she says ‘beyond sex’ because ‘BeyonCex’ is absolutely ridiculous and amazing. We are sure if we asked Beyonce about ‘BeyonCex’ she would say she wrote it on a plane to Japan while thinking about female empowerment, or something, and we would be okay with that.

We do a damn good routine to this, if anyone’s interested.

2.
Run The World (Girls)

‘It’s a mess blah blah blah’. This song is stone cold amazing.

The video is amazing. It is one of our favorite videos of all time.

The dance routine is bloody amazing.

We do it in the mirror sometimes.

We love that this flopped. It turned Beyonce into this kind of faux risk-taker thing.

We love that she kind of embraced it. But we know this was never the plan. We can imagine the screaming at Matthew.

1.
Crazy In Love
(featuring Jay-Z)

Anyone who creates a ‘best of Beyonce’ list without this at the top is either lying to themselves or is an idiot.

We remember the first time we saw Beyonce perform this (SNL finale in May ‘03) and our lives instantly changed forever.

People throw out the term ‘classic’ like bread for the birds but this is an real actual living breathing CLASSIC.

Trust us, you don’t want us to go into a full ‘best Beyonce tracks’ list.

But if we did one, hypothetically, you’d be damn sure you’d find ‘Radio’, ‘1+1’, ‘I Care’, ‘I Miss You’, ‘Party’, ‘Love On Top’, ‘Rather Die Young’, ‘Start Over’, ‘End of Time’, ‘Beautiful Liar’, ‘Beautfiul Liar (Freemasons Remix)’, ‘Ring The Alarm’, ‘Ring The Alarm (Freemasons Remix)’, ‘Green Light’, ‘Green Light (Freemasons Remix)’, ‘Get Me Bodied (Extended Version)’, ‘Kitty Kat’, ‘Suga Mama’, ‘Irrepleaceable’, ‘Broken-Hearted Girl’, ‘Diva’, ‘Ego’ and ‘Why Don’t You Love Me’ somewhere on there.

Birth of a superstar

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 15:01:00 -0700

We stumbled upon this yesterday. We had a listen. We have not stopped listening to it for the past 24 hours and we do not intend on stopping ever.

We are familiar with Lil Silva and his stuff but the little lady on the top is apparently named Banks. We don’t know much about her except that she’s from LA, and we can’t really tell what she looks like through the ‘Tumblr-wave-ness’ of it all, but most importantly we can very much hear her voice and that voice is the VOICE OF A STAR.

We want to listen to this all day and night and in our dreams until the end of time. A download would be helpful. Based on all the recent indie label digital release ‘strategy’ fuckery that’s been going on recently, we’re going to project a May release.

If it ain't broke

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 17:40:00 -0700

Kenzo Spring/Summer 2013 Ad Campaign by Jean Paul Goude

We were anxious to see what Kenzo would pull out next in their amazing streak and we got… more of the same. But this ad setup will forever remain amazing (the FW12 version is already iconic for us) so we can’t complain. The red is very striking as well. More after the jump.

Happy New Year!

Tue, 01 Jan 2013 00:48:00 -0700

Ad of the year.

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:29:24 -0700

2012: The 40 Best Pop Songs

Mon, 31 Dec 2012 15:00:00 -0700

Year-end lists are tricky business. Instead of ranking songs based on merit or artistry, we all rank the songs based on what we like the best. They always turn into a big fat fight because no one can agree on what is the best or not. However, I do not care. So here you go: the 40 songs from the past year that I like the best.

It was extremely hard to narrow down my favorites into a short, 40-song list because this year has been brilliant for pop music. You’ll find a list of ‘honorable mentions’ at the end of this page.

If you can’t agree on what I like the best, I hope you can agree that each song on this list somehow contributed to pop in 2012. For example, some may scoff at Bieber’s position on this list, but even if you don’t like the guy, I hope you can at least appreciate that he is one pop star that could have easily released another cookie cutter dance track but did not. Also, the song (‘Boyfriend’) is fucking amazing.

Something you will not find on this list is anything by Rita Ora. (Well the DJ Fresh one was alrightand you’ll find that in the list at the end but only because it came out before she got really awful and we only enjoy it when we pretend that it’s not her singing it but you get the drift we think she is awful and she is not in the top 40.)

And also, I hope you discover songs that you may not have known about before, because that’s my favorite part of reading others’ year-end lists.

Anyway, here you go, the top 40 BEST (no argument) pop songs of 2012. Enjoy!

(I also hope you enjoy it because it took me fucking forever to put this together.)

*Let your browser load the videos for a minute before scrolling down. It will keep it from freezing and make reading much more enjoyable!

40.
Swedish House Mafia
“Don’t You Worry Child”

The truth about this one is that if you take away the textbook rave crap and changed the raspy manvoice to a female vocalist, you’d be left with a very very good pop song (here’s evidence). We could critique the original version forever, but for what it is, we love the melody and our drunk self thinks the song, for what it is, does its job very well.

39.
Russ Chimes
“Back 2 You”

Further proof Mr. Chimes can do no wrong. The filter build from around 1:00 to 1:37 brings a smile to our face every single time.

38.
Charli XCX
“You’re The One”

Let’s be honest, this isn’t a patch on ‘Nuclear Seasons’ but the potential we see in Ms. XCX’s eyes keeps us longing for more. The most recent mixtape was great (‘Heatwave’ in particular is addictive) and we know the album will be good as long as we get it soon.

37.
Christina Aguilera
“Your Body”

At one point (August), this was the most exciting pop song of the year. We thought all it needed was a killer video, an amazing Stripped-era comeback performance and it would become a runaway #1-for-10-weeks pop smash. Of course, none of that happened and while Your Body is still a great pop song, its unfulfilled potential is one of the most criminal pop offenses in recent memory. It’s time for Xtina to get her ego out of her ass and get back to work, yes?

36.
Bat For Lashes
“Laura”

Tears instantly stream the second we press play.

35.
Roses Gabor
“Night Sky”

One of the reasons Annie Mac has officially become our number one favorite Radio 1 DJ. Thank you for introducing us to this beauty, Annie.

34.
Toro Y Moi
“So Many Details”

Chaz is one of our favorite artists and we foresee a big (well, maybe Radio 1 C-List) breakthrough in 2013. This is the first taste of the new album (to be released in January) and we love it.

33.
Miguel
“Do You…”

No we do not like drugs but we do love this song and we think you will too.

32.
Hot Natured ft. Ali Love
“Benediction”

Sublime. We could use some regular Ali Love.

31.
Nneka
“Shining Star (Joe Goddard Remix)”

We’re glad we gave Nneka another chance because this is phenomenal. Let’s get it straight though: we’ve forgiven, but we haven’t forgotten this abomination. You’re 1-1, Nneka.

30.
Madeon
“The City”

We love that Madeon is only 18 and is a full-on pop music obsessive. The tracklist to his extraordinary Minimix proves this. We love that Madeon is loved by pop fans and ‘EDM’ fans alike. ‘The City’ brought pop to people who like everything but pop, and we hope there are many more moments like this in the future. If you want to hear it, press play and keep scrolling because the song is good but the video is godawful.

29.
Faye
“Silent”

This song was a great end-of-the-year surprise. It’s brilliant.

But if you’re putting a song out “to keep things moving”, why not put it up for free download so that the few fans you do have can listen to it every time they open their iTunes. Perhaps if this happened, it would pop up on shuffle every once and a while and we would think “What’s going on with Faye? Let’s go to her Facebook and check things out,” therefore perpetuating our interest in Faye, creating more of a fan out of us by the time the proper album and single are out. Or, of course, you can confine us to a SoundCloud stream that we will forget by the time the new “hot song” by a buzz artist gets released. Just a thought…

28.
Haim
“Don’t Save Me”

A breezy, great song. There’s nothing we particularly like or dislike about it, it’s just good. I’m posting the video here but I’ve never actually watched it… hope it’s decent!

27.
Lana Del Rey
“Off To The Races”

Every Lana single has been great, but this one has to be a future classic. Every word is like poetry.

26.
Jessie Ware
“Night Light”

I’m not one for big guitar solos but the one at 2:28 makes me lose my shit every single time.

25.
AME
“Play The Game Boy”

The chorus reminds us of ‘Gimme More’… in fact, the harmonies are basically identical. The song is addictive, the K-Pop inspired video is low budget done right, and A*M*E’s potential is growing with every release. The new one with Duke Dumont & MNEK, “Need U (100%)” is streamable on SoundCloud now (but out to buy in March…) and is very very good.

24.
Carly Rae Jepsen
“Call Me Maybe”

We really can’t stand this song anymore, but that doesn’t diminish how incredible it is. The first time we heard the chorus it was intoxicating. This list would be irrelevant if this wasn’t included, and we know that come 2019, this will be regarded as one of the big pop moments of the decade.

23.
Moonlight Matters
ft. Gustaph
“Come For Me”

Gustaph has now been added to my ‘potential names if I ever have a baby boy’ list.

22.
Alunageorge
“Your Drums, Your Love”

Aluna & George, these songs are all amazing but you’ve really can’t be serious about a June 2013 album release. Did Little Boots not teach the world anything! (We just really can’t wait much longer.)

21.
Cheryl
“Call My Name”

Sometimes generic can be very, very, stupid good.

20.
Little Nikki
“Intro Intro”

We’re mostly against the whole children-in-music thing, but even though Little Nikki is only SIX FUCKING TEEN, we couldn’t resist this song. The video is carefree and fun and looks like it was planned in the morning and shot at night… the dance on the hill at 1:54 is esp. amazing.

19.
Flight Facilities ft. Grosvenor
“With You”

We love that Grosvenor never feels the need to break into ‘The City’-style melisma. The restrained amazingness is its strongpoint.

18.
Marina & The Diamonds
“Power & Control”

This should have never been a single (“Lies” says hello) but it’s still catchy as fuck.

17.
Rihanna
“Diamonds”

Although Rihanna is skating on VERY thin ice for us, we can’t deny that ‘Diamonds’ is amazing and a new Rihanna classic. We could have done without the Sia accent. It peaks at “I chose to be happy” (so good).

16.
Girls Aloud
“Something New”

Despite its obvious shortcomings, ‘Something New’ is great for what it is and is exactly what we expected from the big Girls Aloud comeback single: a big fat mess with a fantastic chorus. It makes more sense the more you listen to it, and the chorus is permanently ingrained in my mind where it will remain for eternity.

15.
Nicki Minaj
“Whip It”

As much as we can’t stand this woman and the bullshit that comes with her, we couldn’t help but fall for ‘Whip It’. The mind-blowing chorus takes us somewhere else, and will forever be remembered as the soundtrack of our summer 2012. We’re still reeling that ‘Pound the Alarm’ was picked as a single over this.

14.
Cassie
“King Of Hearts (Richard X Remix)”

Richard X’s name is what brought us to listen to this, but after one listen we are now officially on board the Cassie train. ‘Icy’ is the word that comes to mind.

13.
Rudimental
“Feel The Love”

Everything shit and amazing about pop music in 2012 all rolled up into one DnB/dubstep nightmare. The middle 8 is the amazing part. But it is reaaaaallllyyyy amazing.

12.
MNDR
“#1 In Heaven”

The harmonies in the chorus alone got it here.

11.
Todd Terje
“Inspector Norse”

This may bend the definition of ‘pop’ for some but it has more hooks than many of the songs in the top 10. If there were a decent vocal version somewhere, this could have been top 5. We’re not worrying though; expect ‘Inspector Norse 2014 (ft. Rita Ora)’ to come out on Ministry in approx. 18 months.

10.
Girls Aloud
“On The Metro”

The Xenomania police can blow their horns as much as they want but no one cares: this song is fucking amazing. The whole Girls Aloud comeback has been the definition of half-baked, but this is everything we wanted and more.

High points:
1. “SODA POP”,
2. “METICULOUS”,
3. “BAYYYBAAYYYY” – Nadine
4. SCRATCH ALL THOSE, EVERYTHING IN THIS SONG IS PERFECT

9.
Miguel
“The Thrill”

There is something we really do not like about Miguel but his music is not it. ‘The Thrill’ is a layered, effortless, gorgeous slice of exactly what R&B should be today.

8.
Jessie Ware
“Wildest Moments”

At first, we thought this song was extremely boring. Then we realized that we were expecting Jessie to be poppier than she should be. Her voice carries the song beautifully. (When we heard that it’s about two best friends in a fight, it nearly killed it for us though.)

7.
Marina & The Diamonds
“Primadonna”

Marina’s transformation into pop’s new commercial princess didn’t go as exactly as planned, but this amazing robo-tune really set ‘Electra Heart’ up well. We like that Marina kept her personality intact even after she sold her soul to Dr. Luke.

NB: Before ‘the Electra Heart massacre of 2012’, we would never have thought it would be possible to fuck up the campaign for an album so great.

6.
Taylor Swift
“I Knew You Were Trouble”

We don’t know how to describe the noises in the chorus (“popstep”? “Taystep”?) but they are exhilarating. It’s like the perfect transition from the faux-dubstep pop to the pure pop we want. This is so good that it is mandatory that Taylor ditch the acoustic thing and bring Max Martin on full-time for album 5.

Also, “flew me to place I’d never been” is such a good lyric.

5.
Disclosure ft. Sam Smith
“Latch”

‘Latch’ may be something out of Zane Lowe’s wettest dreams but it’s also a perfect example of why pop right now is so exciting. Sometimes the things that appear to be anything but pop can turn out to be the best pop surprises.

Apparently of the two Disclosure brothers, Howard is the one bringing the pop sensibility to the table. If it weren’t for him, and we were stuck with just the other brother, we’d be listening to some Four Tet wank. So thank you, Howard.

Anyway, it seems future house is already on its way to becoming the new dubstep, and we feel like ‘Latch’ will be the first of a long few years of the genre’s commercialization. We think that when we listen to ‘Latch’ in five years’ time, it will be like listening to “Don’t Stop The Music” today: we’ll be listening to the song that started the trend.

4.
Sky Ferreira
“Everything Is
Embarrassing”

So, basically, it’s time for all producers to quit and let Dev Hynes produce every song for the rest of eternity. Well, maybe Max Martin can stay too but that’s about it.

It’s the effortless of ‘Everything Is Embarrassing’ that got it to this position. It’s uplifting, depressing, romantic, haunting and breezy all at the same time. It’s a perfect pop song from someone who probably had no desire of creating one in the first place, which makes it all the more enjoyable to listen to.

3.
Justin Bieber
“Boyfriend”

As we wait for Timberlake to come back and save pop, the other Justin did a pretty good job of filling the void. Even ‘fondue’ sounds normal around the 85th listen. ‘Swaggie’ does not. 2:29 to 2:52 is the closest thing we’ve heard to a round in a pop song lately and we fucking love it.

2.
Solange
“Losing You”

“Indie Knowles’ delivered the surprise of 2012 with this beauty. The video is all kinds of Vivienne Westwood ridiculousness and it’s great. We have a feeling Beyonce will come back with something similar on album 5.

1.
CHVRCHES
“The Mother We Share”

(There’s no still no official video, so you can choose between either the live video or the official SoundCloud stream above.)

It wasn’t until today that we thought that this could be our single of the year, but now we can’t imagine that there was a time we ever felt differently. After listening to a burned CD containing most of the songs in this top 10, we realized that “The Mother We Share” was the one we always went back to. No other song was quite as wistful, uplifting, catchy and giving as this one. To be honest, we’re not really sure if the song is about siblings fighting, incest, or if it’s some sicko Mother Monster tribute… but what we do know is that it is 100% pure fucking amazing. We have high hopes for CH “V” RCHES in 2013!

Here are a few more good pop songs from 2012…

2NE1 - I Love You (this would have been in the top 40 had there been an English version…)

A-Trak, Mark Foster & Kimbra - Warrior

A*M*E - Ride or Die

Amelia Lily - You Bring Me Joy

Azealia Banks - 1991

BenZel ft. Jessie Ware - If You Love Me

Bondax - Baby I Got That

Bruno Mars - Locked Out Of Heaven

Cher Lloyd ft. Becky G - Oath

Clean Bandit - A+E

Die Antwoord - Baby’s On Fire

Disclosure - What’s In Your Head

DJ Fresh ft. Rita Ora - Hot Right Now

Django Django - Default

Dragonette - Live In This City

Ellie Goulding - Anything Could Happen

Foster The People - Call It What You Want

Frank Ocean - Thinkin’ Bout You

Friends - I’m His Girl (Alunageorge Remix)

Grimes - Oblivion

Henry Krinkle - Stay

Hot Chip - Look At Where We Are

Jai Paul - Jasmine (Demo)

Jessie Ware - 110%

Julio Bashmore - Au Seve

Justin Bieber ft. Nicki Minaj - Beauty and a Beat

Kanye West, Jay-Z, Big Sean - Clique

Katy B ft. Jessie Ware - Aaliyah

Katy Perry - Part Of Me

Kylie - Timebomb

Lana Del Rey - National Anthem

Lana Del Rey - Ride

Le Youth - Cool

Marina & The Diamonds - Lies

M.I.A. - Bad Girls

Mykki Blanco - Kingpinning (Ice Cold)

Nicki Minaj - Va Va Voom

One Direction - Kiss You

The Presets - Promises

Roses Gabor - Stars

Russ Chimes - Turn Me Out

Scissor Sisters - Let’s Have A Kiki

Scissor Sisters - Only The Horses

Sky Ferreira - Lost In My Bedroom

Stevie Neale - Dangerous

Sub Focus ft. Alpines - Tidal Wave

Syron - Breaking

The xx - Chained

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Your Love

Tulisa - Young

Wynter Gordon - Tomorrow

What a great year for pop.

We’re expecting 2013 to be even better.
(coughHurtsBeyonceRobynMKSLilyFuckingAllencough)

Photo

Sun, 30 Sep 2012 16:49:28 -0700

DANIEL RASMUSSEN

Pop song of 2013?

R.I.P.

Happy 5th birthday.

FEB PLAYLIST

Let us rise for Mat Maitland & Big Active

2003Sugababes“Three” campaign

2005Annie“Anniemal” campaign

2007Goldfrapp“Seventh Tree” campaign

2010Marina & The Diamonds“The Family Jewels” campaign

2010Mark Ronson & The Business Int’l“Record Collection” campaign

PVC dreams

#LFKVA

Let's look at Frank Ocean in Dior Homme from five different angles

8/10.

B'Day

9.Deja Vu(Freemasons Remixfeaturing Jay-Z)

8.Single Ladies(Put A Ring On It)

7.Me, Myself & I

6.Sweet Dreams

5.Upgrade U(featuring Jay-Z)

4.Baby Boy(featuring Sean Paul)

3.Dance For You

2.Run The World (Girls)

1.Crazy In Love(featuring Jay-Z)

Birth of a superstar

If it ain't broke

Happy New Year!

Ad of the year.

2012: The 40 Best Pop Songs

40.Swedish House Mafia“Don’t You Worry Child”

39.Russ Chimes“Back 2 You”

38.Charli XCX“You’re The One”

37.Christina Aguilera“Your Body”

36.Bat For Lashes“Laura”

35.Roses Gabor“Night Sky”

34.Toro Y Moi“So Many Details”

33.Miguel“Do You…”

32.Hot Natured ft. Ali Love“Benediction”

31.Nneka“Shining Star (Joe Goddard Remix)”

30.Madeon“The City”

29.Faye“Silent”

28.Haim“Don’t Save Me”

27.Lana Del Rey“Off To The Races”

26.Jessie Ware“Night Light”

25.A*M*E“Play The Game Boy”

24.Carly Rae Jepsen“Call Me Maybe”

23.Moonlight Mattersft. Gustaph“Come For Me”

22.Alunageorge“Your Drums, Your Love”

21.Cheryl“Call My Name”

20.Little Nikki“Intro Intro”

19.Flight Facilities ft. Grosvenor“With You”

18.Marina & The Diamonds“Power & Control”

17.Rihanna“Diamonds”

16.Girls Aloud“Something New”

15.Nicki Minaj“Whip It”

14.Cassie“King Of Hearts (Richard X Remix)”

13.Rudimental“Feel The Love”

12.MNDR“#1 In Heaven”

11.Todd Terje“Inspector Norse”

10.Girls Aloud“On The Metro”

9.Miguel“The Thrill”

8.Jessie Ware“Wildest Moments”

7.Marina & The Diamonds“Primadonna”

6.Taylor Swift“I Knew You Were Trouble”

5.Disclosure ft. Sam Smith“Latch”

4.Sky Ferreira“Everything IsEmbarrassing”

3.Justin Bieber“Boyfriend”

2.Solange“Losing You”

1.CHVRCHES“The Mother We Share”