Lucy Mason – Going Home Broke

Almost a year after I discovered this gorgeous song a video has emerged. Hoping it gives the song new life – it’s too good to look past.

Keeks – Leave It At That

Yet another super promising Aussie. A great find via Project U/Triple J Unearthed. I’m hearing, wait for it…..a bit of Abba on this one.

Middle Kids – Mistake

These Aussie kids are going to be huge in 2018. Their smattering of tunes last year suggested great things and their first tune of the new year is absolutely monster sized.

Deidre & The Dark – Come On

I’ll whisper it…but….’Come On’ is the best track NOT on Saint Etienne’s 2017 album. Deidre and co throw in a bit of solo spice a la Emma Bunton in ‘Free Me’ mode and a smidge of Vanessa Paradis too (but those opening lines are totally Sarah Cracknell). Bliss.

Freya Ridings – Lost Without You

Well this is just lovely. London Grammar comparisons are kinda inevitable due to Freya’s voice. ‘Lost Without You’ is pretty devastating and beautifully simple. Executed to perfection.

Annalia – Wavelength

Some nice Fleetwood Mac-isms about this one but with some modern production touches too.

https://soundcloud.com/annaliamusic/wavelength

Hana Vu – Crying On The Subway

New name on me but Hana Vu’s ‘Crying On The Subway’ manages to make wonky chill wave sound souful. Gonna put this out there…….Adele meets Toro Y Moi via the Cocteau Twins. In a good way, ok?

Computer Magic – Ordinary Life (Message From An A.I. Girlfriend)

How about a nice midweek slice of 80s sci-fi pop from Computer Magic? Her new album ‘DANZ’ is but a few weeks away. Let’s geek out with this one for now. Sounds like The Cardigans gone TRON.

Kim Wilde & Ricky Wilde – Pop Don’t Stop

It was 1981. I was seven. My musical ears were just waking up. I had heard Blondie, Kelly Marie and Sheena Easton. I liked the sound of them all. However I was yet to purchase a record. I consumed music via the radio or television but had no collection of my own. That was about to change. I don’t remember how I came to be aware of ‘Cambodia’ by Kim Wilde but something must have connected because it was the first time I used my pocket money to go into Woolworths and buy a single.

What I do remember is coming home with the record and playing it for the first time after school that day on the 2^nd hand record player my grandparents had given me. I remember playing it somewhere in the region of forty times in a row and my parents asking me to stop because it was getting on their nerves. My response was to turn it over and play the b side ‘Watching For Shapes’ on repeat instead. I don’t know what it was. The voice? The production? The sounds? Who knows. However, on a level beyond which I can describe or comprehend something happened and my musical love affair was born.

Fast forward thirty seven years. I’m an adult. Living in a very grown up world with lots of responsibilities both personal and professional. However, I feel like a child again at the prospect of Kim Wilde’s new single ‘Pop Don’t Stop’ getting its first radio play. I’m taken back to the days of listening to the top 40 on Sunday evening waiting to hear where Kim has placed with her latest single. I’m also reflecting on the place in my heart and head that Kim’s music has had over these thirty seven years.

As an only child and teenager with a, let’s say, difficult childhood this music has been my companion, a sibling I never had, a place to hide when things got loud at home, a world to retreat into when I didn’t like the real one. Hearing the opening lines to ‘Pop Don’t Stop’ it’s clearly about Kim and Ricky growing up so close in age and being immersed in music. Whilst I am an only child, a had (have) a super close friend who lived opposite me who shared a love of pop. We would play record shops and make up routines to songs we saw and heard on Top Of The Pops. We remain friends today and whilst we don’t see each other too often, when we do meet it takes only a few minutes before the conversation turns to music.  Those ‘Pop Don’t Stop’ lyrics hit such an emotional note for me for those reasons. It’s a song about the joy of pop and it’s a joy I never want to lose.

Hearing this new song for the first time I shed a tear or two, got goosebumps and was then overcome with gratitude for all the pure happiness Kim and Ricky have given me and all their pop loving fans over the course of nearly four decades. There is no faking their love for pop and it shines through right here. Thank you for the pop. And please, please….don’t stop.

Caitlyn Smith – Tacoma

I’m a little late to this one. Thanks to pop maestro Steve Anderson I didn’t miss out though. On the strength of this track alone I’ve rushed to order Caitlyn’s debut album ‘Starfire’. Landing somewhere between Sheryl Crow, Julien Baker and Matraca Berg.