Daniel Merriweather
The new… Gavin, Paolo and Jamie
This 26-year-old Australian has already had two big hits, so he’ll certainly get some attention for his solo work, but he isn’t necessarily guaranteed hits. He has to make good songs first. His new solo single, Change, is not too bad but personally I was more impressed by the soulful and melodic Cigarettes. It reminds me of two great singers, Jamie Lidell and Gavin Degraw, and one slightly less great, Paolo Nutini. In fact, Cigarettes is pretty much a progression from Gavin to Paolo to Jamie. Hopefully it will be his next single. Those who like The Script will enjoy Daniel’s music, although his soulful sound feels a bit more genuine to me (even if he is Australian!).
Poptasticness: 78% Hit potential: 82%
Emmy the Great
The new… Laura Marling
She’s not exactly a new act, but I think Emmy could make her breakthrough in the next few months, at least with the indie crowd. Her debut album, First Love, is released on the 2nd of February, and she also appears on one of the singles from the new Norman Cook project, The BPA (standing for Brighton Port Authority), although it’s hard to tell what’s going on with that at the moment. I loved her 2007 single Gabriel and the slightly Pipettes-esque recent release We Almost Had a Baby. Emmy has a lovely voice and some very nice songs, so I think her album will be quite successful.
Poptasticness: 86% Hit potential: 74%
Empire of the Sun
The new… Cut Copy/PNAO/Presets etc.
I was first intrigued by this group because one of them was from Nick Littlemore from PNAU, who made the brilliant Embrace featuring Ladyhawke. In fact, I just learned that Nick was in a band with Ladyhawke before as well. After years of producing only crap rock bands and unimpressive pop princesses, Australia is definitely the cool place for electro-indie these days. Cut Copy and The Presets have been popular for a few years, and now Empire of the Sun are getting mentions in every ‘ones to watch’ list. I do like their creative, colourful image, and the catchy new single is nice to listen to, but I don’t find myself playing it again and again. It’s inoffensive, but I wouldn’t say it’s special. Australia may be producing some popular electro acts, but Scandinavia continues to produce much better ones.
Poptasticness: 79% Hit potential: 84%
Fenech-Soler
The new… Hot Chip
This group were apparently one of the most talked about acts at last year’s In The City festival in Manchester, so it seems they definitely have the potential to gain critical acclaim. Whether they can transform that into sales is another thing, particularly when there are so many other electro acts coming out at the moment. We’re utterly inundated, and I wish I could be more enthusiastic. Much of my favourite music is in the electro-pop genre, but to be quite honest none of these new acts are good enough. Fenech-Soler could do well as they appear to be something of an electro boyband, but sadly they don’t sound all that much like Phixx or even Avenue, and they’re not actually all that good-looking either. They state Phoenix as an influence, and they are quite similar, but there’s no Run or Everything is Everything yet.
Poptasticness: 53% Hit potential: 43%