Snap, Crackle and Pop, Glorious Pop

My girlfriend said to me the other day, "When are you going to stop listening to all this electro and pop crap and get back to indie rock?" It was a good question as I hadn't really considered that I had listening to much pop, electro yes, pop no.

But then I realised that there was a fair chunk of pop that I actaully had been listening to. Pop music would have to be one of the most problematic terms to define. You could elaborate it to popular music which it originally started as back in the days of Tin Pan Alley where popular music overtook the Broadway and vaudeville sounds so popular at the time. Then along came blues, jazz and good ol' rock n roll.

Today pop music has been dirtied with the mass produced shite that occupies the commercial charts today (Mika i'm talking to you c*nt). Pop has been tarnished with r&b barbies and Freddie Mecury wannabes that get super-producers to mask their shitty vocals and get massive PR firms to put their face on every bus stop and Pepsi bottle. This is the definition of pop as popular music, which the 14 year old girls lap up like a cat to a milk-filled saucer.

But fear not dear music lovers, their are still artists out their pushing the envelope in terms of melody, non guitar based, beautiful pop. Guillemots deserved Mercury award nominated debut was an amazing example of this and it really kicked off my love affair. And more recently Jens Lekmans album version of Arms Around Me really tickled my fancy along with Feist's 1 2 3 4, two tracks that are blogged to death but I just can't get enough of.

I have decided to call this new expansive genre nu-pop, yes i know i'm a wanker, but I just really, REALLY hate some of the absolute trash that gets tagged as pop in the charts today. Anyway here is a mixceedee of tracks I have been loving that are around the mark.

Nu-Poppers, They Aren't Shit
by DJ Benjimite

Jens Lekman - Your Arms Around Me
Patrick Wolf - The Magic Position
The Soft Lightes - Heart Made Of Sound
Architecture In Helsinki - Like It Ar Not
Fields - IfYouFailWeAllFail
Guillemots - We're Here
The Paper Scissors - Yamanote Line
Phoenix - Too Young
Rufus Wainwright - Instant Pleasure
The Shout Out Louds - My Friend And The Ink
The Brunettes - Her Hairagami Set
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Underwater (You And Me)
Feist - 1 2 3 4
Peter Bjorn and John - Let's Call It Off
Figurines - The Air We Breathe
Loquat - Time Bomb
Maps - Eloise
Andrew Bird - Heretics
Mates of State - Goods

And just for good measure I have to throw in this bonus track (It won't fit on the ceedee) just cos it is such a damn good song.

Sufjan Stevens - Chicago

Love yous all