Peru knows the score:
Jhene Aiko is deserving of some fame if/when she gets an album officially released. Until then, there's her free
Sailing Souls mixtape and the stellar follow-up single
"Snapped." Teedra Moses'
Luxurious Undergrind mixtape is reeeal nice, too.
The-Dream (one of the best producers around right now) tossed out a pretty good free album today:
1977
I'm a big supporter of
Clare Maguire this year. She's not going to be huge (yet) but I definitely dig the way she balances the anthemic and emotional, and she's got an awesomely mature self-assuredness that kind of reminds me of Cher in her heyday:
"The Shield and the Sword," "The Last Dance," "Ain't Nobody"
Euro girlies are a dime a dozen, and I still like so many of them:
Katy B (one of the current best),
Lily McKenzie (only a few songs, but she has potential), Rachel Stevens (if only for
"Some Girls," the best Girls Aloud song that never was), Danish singer
Medina is decent...
Sally Shapiro is one of the better pop/nu-disco acts and the Johan Agebjorn album,
Casablanca Nights, she contributed to this year is stellar. Sally Seltmann (who helped write Feist's "1 2 3 4") had one of the nicest little pop heart-warmers last year with
"Heart That's Pounding" and she's now doing a trio with Sarah Blasko and Holly Throsby called
Seeker Lover Keeper which sounds like puppies and kittens kissing.
And of coooourse, no pop discussion in 2011 is complete without
MR. SAXOBEAT, WOOOO.
