Spector
I was going to save writing about Spector until my A-Z of 2012 (my judgement on all the acts predicted for new year success) in January, but as more and more people are blogging and tweeting about them they are becoming the elephant in the indie-pop room. If I had to compare Spector to any musical era I would say they sound most like 2005, but it’s not cool to be 6 years out of date so Spector are wisely going with a 50s image in their band photos and music videos so far. While there’s nothing particularly exciting about Spector’s music, it is a) hotly tipped and b) accessible for the average listener, allowing Mr and Ms Average to like something they are told is cool. That’s a pretty good recipe for a hit, or at least for a slot on the Radio 1 playlist and a weekly appearance in the NME for the next few months.
Poptasticness: 56% Hit potential: 80%
Family of the Year
Now here’s an indie-pop act I can really get behind! As soon as I heard the chorus to their new song St Croix, which rhymes ocean with motion and potion, I was totally on board. While Family of the Year are signed to an indie label and getting rave reviews from all sorts of indie blogs, their music’s so catchy and uplifting it fully deserves to be labelled as pop. There have been several similar acts in recent years who’ve achieved varying levels of success, my favourite being Music Go Music and the best known being Polyphonic Spree. The timelessness of Family of the Year’s music could hold them back as they can’t be marketed as part of any trend but I’m confident that fans of happy-clappy indie-pop will be besotted with their new album when it comes out early next year.
Poptasticness: 82% Hit potential: 30%