Icona Pop
One of the criticisms I often make about the more indie side of electro-pop music is that they have a tendency to overdo it a bit with the random noises, which can make the songs quite cluttered and distract from their melody and structure. I feel this way to some extent about Icona Pop, but the more I listen to their music the less it seems to be a problem. I still think that parts of their songs are too cluttered and would benefit from a little stripping down, but the songs have so many enjoyable parts to them which I am getting to know better each time I listen to them. You might be surprised, after listening, to find that Icona Pop are actually a female duo rather than a girl singing over music made by a man (as music that sounds like this usually turns out to be). It’s great to see female artists cutting ahead of the men in the innovative pop stakes, so Icona Pop get my full support for that as well as their highly listenable music.
Poptasticness: 78% Hit potential: 30%
Russo
I think the single Russo released last autumn (her only single so far), Fool, could be a hit if it’s re-released at some point with a major label attached or at least some daytime Radio 1 support. It was produced by currently buzzy UK producers Yo Video so hopefully they’ll both get a leg-up into the big time soon and we’ll see Russo’s potential to be a great UK female artist realised. There’s something very British about her. She’s not a perfect pop princess (which is neither a criticism nor a compliment from me), but she performs her song Fool with such personality in the video that this in itself gives her star quality. Her tweets show just as much personality, for example: “People who wear padded knickers ? What’s that all about??. If u ain’t got a arse then u ain’t got one. Simple.” Indeed.
Poptasticness: 65% Hit potential: 39%