New Things

Lots of people like to make predictions about who will be big by the end of the year. I'd like to claim Joss Stone, Go! Team and KT Tunstall whom I was into months before any of you other suckers as my previous predictions. This isn't so much my predictions of whom will be or even could be big, this is a list of new pop acts that are really very good and deserve to be, but probably won't be, huge.

Leela James
I found a link to Leela James' site on a German music site whilst looking for information on Frank Popp. The streaming of her album sounds very good, like a maturer version of 'Soul Sessions'-era Joss Stone. Her best song 'Music' is a beautiful and soulful organ-led beg for mercy in a world where music is generic and it "ain't about tha song no mo'/s'all about the video". Half scathing-half begging Leela balances heartache and ecstasy perfectly, serving each and every song up with a loving spoonful of soul and undeniable vibrance. Her album 'A Change Is Gonna Come' was apparently released in June, which indicates that it's highly unlikely she's going to be big, but that makes her no less of a great find. And I can't be the only one impressed by Leela, as her album features production appearances from big names Kanye West, Raphael Saadiq, Wyclef Jean and Comissioner Gordon.


West End Girls
Living in the shadows of both the Pet Shop Boys (well, duh) and the A*Teens (a great pop band originally formed as a tribute band of another even greater band) every pop blog seems to have mentioned this duo, so I thought it was about time I jumped on the band wagon. Now, only being born in 1988, you'll excuse me for not being the biggest Pet Shop Boys fan in the world, simply because they were before my time. Then add to that the fact that I don't 'get' Neil Tennant's voice and where I'm able to appreciate the genius of the Pet Shop Boys', I'm not a huge fan. Which is why this band is perfect. 1980s genius repackaged for the 2006 audience. West End Girls' 'Domino Dancing' is brilliant from start to finish, pure perfection. Plus, PSB were like the people who invented the whole new-wave electro thing and that's all the fashion nowadays, so surely a band so heavily influenced on the pioneers of a genre are sure to dominate it. And when they sound this good, why wouldn't they?