Irritating, maybe. But homophobic? I’m not convinced…

No Electric Picnic for me, so I’m planning on trolling updating the Anablog for the next few days, while the rest of the “team” queue for the toilets and drink overpriced beer at the event itself. Festivals are overrated anyway aren’t they.

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If you’ve been living in a ditch, or are a “proper music” bore and believe that pop music is beneath you, then it may have escaped your attention that Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl” has thus far spent three weeks at number one in the UK. I quite like the single I must say, but not everyone will agree. In recent weeks the song has been played constantly on daytime radio, on MTV Hits and The Box, in supermarkets, in clothes shops, in cars and bars – and nobody likes an overexposed pop song. What’s more, “I Kissed A Girl” has prompted accusations of homophobia. The song may be irritating, the video may play up to every Zoo magazine lesbo-fantasy in the book, but is it really homophobic? I think this is pushing things a bit.

The phrase “lipstick lesbianism” has become quite the popular alliterative put-down of choice over the past decade or so. I dislike the phrase, because of its snotty undertones, but I’m talking about girls who are to all outward appearances “straight” (as if outward appearances count for anything in the world of sexuality), publicly snogging other girls for whatever reason – expressed or otherwise. Perhaps it is fair to attack public girly snogs, if such displays merely exist for the voyeuristic pleasure of blokes. That’s already to make a bit of an assumption, I’d say. Maybe it is just attention-seeking, but is it homophobic? What is the point of protest? It does all seem to spin on the idea that there is such a thing as a “proper lesbian”. This single isn’t pushing the sort of ideas Luce Irigaray espouses, I’ll grant you. The singer of “I Kissed A Girl” does add “I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it”, and wakes up in bed beside the chap at the end of the video, in true secondary-school essay “It was all a dream!” style. For some people all of this will scream “I’m not gay by the way!” But I’m sure we all know plently of people who have “experimented” with members of their own gender, and who don’t feel the need to label themselves as “gay”, “straight” or “bi” or any other category. The line “it felt so wrong/ It felt so right/ Don’t mean I’m in love tonight” also seems harmless enough to me. It’s flighty and cheeky, kissing as harmless fun. That’s all the “lipstick lesbian” phenomenon is. I don’t believe it makes life more difficult for LGTB people. I think the real bone of contention is that some straight men are turned on by lesbian fantasies (always involving very feminine looking lesbians natch). So it involves the sexual objectification of women – is it misogynistic? Just about any hetero-male fantasy is going to be misogynistic by that account – unless you get your kicks out of thinking about the sufragette movement or by reading “The Female Eunuch”. Isn’t the area of sexual drives, fetishism and fantasy always going to be dark and unsettling to some degree? Or am I just a perv?

The accusations of homophobia against “I Kissed A Girl” smack of a new puritanism to me. Perry’s previous single was of course a thing called “Ur So Gay” (“gay” having become a synonym for “lame” or “naff”). You could chart the etymology of the word like you can a single climbing or sliding down the pop charts. The “Brights” movement, a bunch of people who champion what they call reason over what they call superstition (and for these people this includes religion), and involving Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett among others, has sought to claim the word “bright” in much the same way that homosexuals adopted the word “gay” in the last century. Again, I am not conviced that even “Ur So Gay” is really homophobic. The argument is an interesting one and I’m open to it, but if you want to convince me that the use of such phrases is homophobic, then we’ll have to get into the intentionality behind it. I suspect that Katy Perry’s religious (Christian) upbringing has a lot to do with how people hear her recent singles. But I think a point is being missed. “Lipstick lesbianism” is a cultural phenomenon. There is a song about it. It doesn’t go any deeper than that.

Mind you, if her next single is a collaboration with Beenie Man, it might be time to worry. (But stranger things have happened – according to Planet Sound Roots Manuva and James Blunt are about to record together. This is great news, if only because it’ll force the “James Blunt, anyone?” brigade to think for a change.)

David Turpin: My Favourite Things

I meet David Turpin in a bar that doubles as a sort of library. Books surround us. Some cackling ladies are apparently over for a hen party. The strange mixture of literature and let-your-hair-down fun could seem incongruous, but here it feels oddly appropriate. It is the perfect place to ask the bookish, thoughtful, Sandymount based grave-digger (i.e. he “digs” graves, ho ho!) about his new album, his favourite records, books and films, and about the relationship between sex and death. And, of course! The politics of dancing – on graves.

David’s debut LP, “The Sweet Used-To Be”, is this year’s most strikingly original Irish album. Gentle electronics and the occasional sample provide the backdrop for a lyrical world populated by ghosts and wild animals and the atmosphere is just a little bit spooky. It is redolent of 4AD’s more wistful, ethereal output: This Mortal Coil, Cocteau Twins and even Frazier Chorus. Momus and Pet Shop Boys also spring to mind. One of the sprightliest things on the record is called “Dancing On My Grave”. Turpin is, it seems, enamored with the supernatural. I inquire if he is interested in Romantic Poetry. “The Romantic Poets were always praising nature, talking about how wonderful it is and feeling in awe of it. I’m more interested in the idea that nature can be cruel too, and even evil. Besides I’m not just interested in the natural world, I’m interested in the world of the fairies.”

Later, he tells me that his dog died recently. “The difference between being alive one minute and being dead the next is so small but still so huge. I know it’s only a dog and I’m not comparing it to a human dying, but I looked around the house and all the dog’s baskets were there. We buried him in the garden. Really it was the last act of kindness I could show him. You don’t have to be particularly religious to feel that sense of the sanctity of a grave. My song ‘Dancing On My Grave’ is an invitation to somebody to dance on my grave when I’m dead.” I ask him what he thinks of the idea of people who plan to dance on Margaret Thatcher’s grave when she passes on. “Whether you’re an atheist of not, to do that is such a profoundly disrespectful thing to do, to make light of somebody’s death like that. You know that feeling when you’re in a graveyard and you accidentally step on someone’s grave…? But to actually invite someone to dance on your grave after you’re dead is either an act of incredible masochism, or it’s a very empowering thing to do”.

A brief discussion of the history of masochism in pop ensues. “That Antony and the Johnsons song “Fistful of Love” is so great because he freely and openly admits to being a masochist. He says he likes being slapped around. Some people pretend to be into masochism but feel the need to let you know that they don’t approve of that sort of thing really. That’s what that song by The Crystals, ‘He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)’ was all about. There’s a real honesty about that song. People don’t want to hear a woman say those things, but The Crystals are obviously singing in character there. Immediately everyone is looking for the man pulling the strings who is making her sing this. Little Eva [of “The Locomotion" fame] told Carole King that her boyfriend had hit her because he heard she’d cheated but she was pleased in a way because it meant he loved her, so Carole wrote a song about it. It’s a representation of something that isn’t nice but we’re still entitled to sing about it. It’s a taboo – we can’t talk about the impulse to be the victim.” Ah yes, pop’s dark side. It’s not all ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ and ‘Touch My Bum’ you know.

He tells me he’d love to work with Kylie, and I have to applaud the ambition that is latent in this statement. So many Dublin musicians seem to think that having your demo get a spin on Phantom FM is as good as it gets. So who else would you like to record with, David? “Grace Jones. Have you heard her new song? It’s alright, it sounds like a Massive Attack song, but it opens with the line ‘Pleased to eat you, pleased to have you on my plate’ which is brilliant, very Grace Jones. I saw her live once and she was two hours late coming on stage. All these people around me were booing – you could tell they didn’t know Grace Jones. When she did arrive you knew immediately that she was doing you a favour by just being there. Liza Minelli, especially since Cabaret, always has this…grip on herself. She’s always seeking attention, always asking to be loved in one way or another. But with Grace Jones you believe it.” Maybe that’s the difference between growing up in Hollywood and growing up in the riot-strewn Jamaica of the late 60s and early 70s? “Maybe, yeah. If I made a record with Grace Jones and she didn’t treat me harshly throughout the recording process, I’d be disappointed.” Spoken like a true masochist. So, David Turpin, tell us about some of your favourite things…

Music

Kate Bush “The Hounds of Love” (1985)

“It’s a record that has its own sealed world. You can like it or dislike it but you can’t really say it’s deficient, you know, because it is what it is what it is. There’s a real sense of joy about it. You have to look past the big 80s drums, but it’s still a masterpiece. ‘Hounds of Love’ is really where Kate Bush ceases to just be a singles artist and becomes an albums artist. All the little girlishness of her earlier records falls away at this point. You know that line “is there so much hate for the ones we love?” It’s the sound of the record too. Her voice is obviously very evocative and the lyrics are very good… blah blah blah…but all the sounds that are going on in this record are great too. She shamelessly writes about topics that some people might think of as being incredibly boring, but she manages to extrapolate something from them that justifies the reference. ‘Cloudbusting’ is about Willhelm Reich, who I don’t know that much about, and the whole second side is about Tennyson! So it might be intellectual but it could, you know, go on Top of the Pops, and it did in fact. I love the almost onomatopoeia of “Running Up That Hill”, the drums sound like someone running and so on, I like that attention to detail. There are sounds on the record where you’re not sure if you actually heard it or dreamed it or imagined it. Those voices on ‘Waking The Witch’ for example, and that song that follows it (‘Watching You Without Me’ – Ed), where a voice appears as a ghostly thing. Her last album was good too, and she came back with dignity, which is…admirable. I always think of her as being this sort of ancient being, but she’s not – she’s probably only something like fifty years old…”

Jimmy Scott “Heaven” (1996)

“He made records as Little Jimmy Scott and he had a sort of alto female voice, so it was kind of separated from gender. He then went away for a bit and came back and made a record with Ray Charles, which didn’t get released. After that he went off into obscurity for a long time until he was sort of rediscovered by Lou Reed in the early 90s. He released this record called “Heaven” which a collection of spirituals. One of them is called “There’s No Disappointment In Heaven”. He sings it like a ninety-year-old man that has the innocence of a child. It’s jazz, but it’s a very spacious sort of jazz sound, it’s not a cocktail jazz sound. It’s kind of hard to say what’s so great about it. He had a bad family history, it sounds like he’s singing the story of his life. It’s weird to hear him since that song “Heaven” [a Talking Heads cover], because the song is maybe atheist or agnostic at best, but he makes into a sort of spiritual song and brings out the ambiguity of it. It’s a cynical song drained of cynicism and there’s still something there. Even though it’s very anti-God because he’s very religious he manages to find the faith in it. When I grew up were weren’t raised religious, I thought that was fairly normal but then years later I realized it wasn’t so normal at all. So I don’t really have a background in religious music, it’s something I discovered much later – maybe as a teenager. I’m interested in that notion of wanting to pray even though you don’t know who or what you’re praying to. I don’t dance but I would never dance on somebody’s grave, no.”

Missy ‘Misdemeanor’ Elliot “Supa-Dupa Fly” (1997)

“I’ve just been getting into hip-hop recently. Journalists tend to ask me who I think I sound like and I’m often tempted to mention The Sugarhill Gang and things like that, but they’re not really an influence on my record, though they could be on the next one. My friend who plays keyboards with me and writes with me is really into block parties – with a ‘k’ mind you. And so I’ve started to sort of plunge into that a bit. “Supa-Dupa Fly” is sort of like “The Hounds of Love” in that it just takes this pleasure in invention. I find some of the sounds on it really funny. I don’t know why but anytime you hear all the sounds fit in to place it makes you laugh. When I record something with my friend and it just sounds right, we laugh. Missy Elliot is also a very underrated singer, a soul singer. I’m not saying she’s the best singer there is, but she is good, and she’s a good rapper too. There aren’t many female producers around who produce for other people. There are lots who produce themselves of course, Joni Mitchell, Bjork produces her own stuff obviously, but I can’t think of many jobbing female producers.”

Film

“Blue Velvet” (1986)

“I love the film. I like Laura Dern’s character in it. A lot of people don’t understand it, they think it’s funny, particularly that scene outside the church but I don’t think it’s funny at all. I like how her character is treated here – sympathetically. Not like in ‘American Beauty’, which is a facile treatment of a similar subject; the film thinks it’s so much better than the character Mena Suvari plays. It spends all its time mocking her and reveling in her misery, it’s laughing at her all the time. I like how in ‘Blue Velvet’ it treats the girl as a “girl in trouble”. Sure, she’s not very clever and she’s spoilt and so on but that doesn’t matter. I love the score. I know it’s full of big 80s synth-pads, but it adds to it. It’s mysterious and electronic; we don’t really know where we are. Lots of Angelo Badalamenti’s scores are like that. Even in ‘Twin Peaks’, the jazz bits are played on sort of electronic instruments, there’s something not quite right about it. I love the main song in ‘Blue Velvet’, the simplicity of it. I think it’s just a couple of lines – ‘Sometimes the wind blows and the mysteries of love come clear…’”

Book

Michael Lesy “Wisconsin Death Trip”

“It’s a book of photographs taken in the nineteenth century in this town where tragedy seemed to be around every turn. There was a cholera epidemic, lots of people died, all the kids turned out gay, and it just seemed that everything turned out wrong in this town. There are a lot of photographs of dead babies’ bodies. It’s like the last act of kindness the parents’ could show to their dead infant children. When somebody dies and you get to see them after their death, it’s the first time you ever get to see them still, genuinely still. A friend of mine died, though I didn’t see him die, and I didn’t see his body, but I imagine it’s the same with a person as it was with my dog. Not that I mean to compare the two things!”

David Turpin’s album, “The Sweet Used-To Be”, is out now on Kabinet Records.

David Turpin on MySpace

Indie In Decline In The Indie.

For that headline, I can only apologise. Moving swiftly along…

One of my favourite singles of 2008 is Gabriella Cilmi’s “Sweet About Me“, which on first listen might have sounded like just another post-Winehouse piece of whimsy, but with repeated listens it reveals itself to be what a musicologist might call an “earworm”. Her album is co-written and produced by Xenomania and her next single is a Saint Etienne co-write. Pop is in good hands so there is good cause to be happy. This contentment with the healthy state of pop – something I might otherwise lie awake at night worrying about – was interrupted slightly when I perused the latest issue of Hot Press. The contents page of the current issue introduces the Aussie popster thus: “She has more in common with Nina Simone or Janis Joplin than any of this year’s production line pop moppets. Thank God for her parents’ record collection.” Now while I have a lot of time for old Nina, I must say that to mine ears Janis Joplin has always sounded like a gravel-gargling, caterwauling bag-lady. Taste is such a subjective thing, eh? But leaving aside the rock snobbery implicit in the Hot Press quote – and it’s difficult to leave aside because it gets my goat let me tell you – what is this about “this year’s production-line pop moppets”? Surely in 2008, it is production line indie which plagues us. Westlife are not the enemy any more. The Enemy are.

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(“What’s this shit?” – Andrew Collins) Scouting For Girls “She’s So Lovely”

Today’s Independent On Sunday has a great article on this point, so I thought I’d alert Analogue readers to it now in case they want to nip around to the shops before closing time to buy themselves a copy. It’s the cover feature of the New Review section which grabbed my attention – a parody of the Conservative Party’s 1979 “Labour Isn’t Working” election campaign posters. Here the dole queue has been replaced by a series of current-day indie musicians queuing for a band audition. Tim Walker’s article also mulls over the current state of the NME, features good insights from Simon Reynolds and Andrew Collins, and contains a sort of quiz where the reader is invited to identify a bunch of “landfill indie” bands. It is easy to sneer at the utterly pedestrian so-called indie scene these days what with all of the generic music it produces, all of those generic band names…they might as well be called The Thises, The Thats or The Others (oh hang on, they do exist…). But at heart what is at issue here is the freeing up of youth imagination. The suggestion that the guitar pop of 2008 is so mired because the musicians and songwriters involved grew up with the fag-end britpop – Shed Seven, Sleeper and Gene – is persuasive. If there is a genuine spirit of independent music at the moment, perhaps it is to be found in the genre-hopping gender bending torch pop of Antony and the Johnsons, or the global pop of M.I.A. or the psychedelic disco of MGMT. All of those acts are fairly close to the mainstream though. A cursory glance at this week’s Independent Singles Chart makes it feel like a lifetime has passed since the days when you could see videos by Nurse With Wound, Half Man Half Biscuit and Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel on The Chart Show.

Rock On Film

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“The Girl Can’t Help It” (1956)

This week, “Mamma Mia!” has been on the receiving end of a deserved critical mauling. ABBA songs crow-barred into a ropey, wafer-thin – and dubiously misogynistic – “story”. Pierce Brosnan’s useless “singing”. Who needs it? As if “ABBA: The Movie” wasn’t shoddy enough. That 1977 film plumbed the depths of dullness, following the misfortunes of a journalist as he chases the Swedes around Australia hoping to secure an interview. Like so many rock biopics, it is confused, and lacking confidence in its subject. It’s only with the recent achievements of “Dig!” and “Control” that rock biopics have really found their feet, and Don Letts deserves some credit here for having been an innovator in this area. Let’s have a look then, at some other celluloid approaches to rock and pop. It’s rare that a rock film manages to be wholeheartedly entertaining, but this doesn’t seem to dissuade studios from bankrolling them all the same. Back in the mid fifties, aged rocker Bill Haley featured in “Rock Around The Clock”, but that was really a long-form music promo. It was “The Girl Can’t Help It” which really ushered in the rock flick era. Its plot was too flimsy and downright stupid to be worth relating here but it did feature performances by Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Julie London, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran all in glorious colour. Its use of cinemascope also made it something of an “event” picture. Remember, this is fifty-two years ago, when Sarah Jessica-Parker was only…well about fifteen years old, probably. Oddly the English rock and roll film efforts, which followed in its wake, now seem more compelling and exciting. “Expresso Bongo” (1959), which featured a youthful Cliff Richard, is tremendous. Cliff plays a teen singer called Bert Rudge who listens to the advice of his manager, realises he’ll never have a hit with a name like that, and changes it to erm, Bongo Herbert. The mood, feel and soundtrack of the film are terrific though – you can almost smell the Brillcreem. It’s easily the best of Cliff’s films, and it is in fact better than any of Elvis’ better-known movie efforts. It captures pre-Beatles British pop beautifully.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A06eeIHKcbA]
“Play It Cool” (1962)

Almost as good is the Billy Fury vehicle “Play It Cool” (1962). Once again “plot” is an irrelevance here, see it for evidence that Fury was the greatest British rock ‘n’ roller of them all. It was directed by Michael Winner and the musical direction was by Norrie Paramor – the man behind hits by Cliff Richard, Frank Ifield, Helen Shapiro, Billy Fury and Shane Fenton (later Alvin Stardust) some of whom appear in the film. It might be a footnote to pop history now, but that just makes it all the more intriguing. Enough has probably already been written about The Beatles’ excellent filmic endeavours so we’ll pass over them here. Without them however, we certainly wouldn’t have had The Monkee’s TV series, and thus would have been robbed of the superb 1968 film “Head” – wherein the boys roam through a deeply surreal and unsettling world created by Jack Nicholson (yes that one) and director Bob Rafelson. Aside from some truly gorgeous music (Goffin and King’s head-spinning “Porpoise Song” and “As We Go Along” being perhaps the highlights), it has lots of self-deprecating humour (“Well whaddayaknow! If it isn’t God’s gift to the eight year olds!”), dark references to the Vietnam war and a cameo by Frank Zappa with a talking cow. It’s a long way from Cliff Richard and Una Stubbs on a double-decker bus.

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“Head” (1968)

Some people admire Pete Townsend’s forays into rock opera. The Who’s film “Tommy” is perennially popular, but any “deep’n’meaningful” message which may lurk in there is cancelled out by some moments of supreme daftness. Which takes us to Led Zeppelin’s “The Song Remains The Same”. I appreciate that Led “Zep” are considered to be about the most important and influential rock band to ever have refused to release a single, but I must admit I find their supposed “mysticism”, leather breeches and curly strutting to be faintly pathetic. The concert footage, filmed during their time touring “Houses Of The Holy” is alright if you like that sort of thing, but the “fantasy” sequences are rather hilarious. Robert Plant, in soft focus, on horseback! John Paul Jones, also in soft focus and on horseback!! Jimmy Page, in soft focus, on a rugged, snowy, mountain!!! John Bonham, in soft focus (what was the problem here, wrinkles? Surely not…), larking about his country estate in a vintage car!!!! All palpable nonsense of course, but hey, that’s showbiz.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXfOwdVrBaM]
“Take It Or Leave It” (1981)

Madness’ 1981 biopic “Take It Or Leave It” is more fun. It recounts the story of how the band emerged from the primordial slime of the Dublin Castle in Camden to become perhaps the UK’s biggest pop group. The plot unfolds via a canny combination of some truly terrible “acting” and studio and concert footage. What it does do, though, is vividly capture something of youth culture in 1981. It’s uncannily like those early British rock and roll films in that regard – and a world away from “The Song Remains The Same”. If you’ve been intrigued by all this talk of rubbish acting, plotlessness, surreal whimsy and pretentious claptrap, then Pet Shop Boys’ 1988 flop film “It Couldn’t Happen Here” is a must. I’d tell you what it’s about but even having seen it umpteen times I’m afraid I’m none the wiser. Perversely though, it is rather good. Chris Lowe apparently wanted the film’s tagline to be “A Wank Of Epic Proportions”. That’s a concise enough description. It’s available in full through Google Video so you can judge for yourself.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0agwWPljY0]
“Stardust” (1974)

Finally, a word about the greatest film about rock ever, which is “Stardust”, a film from 1974, and sequel to the almost as good “That’ll Be The Day”, starring David Essex as a wannabe rock star whose life is in disarray. He goes through every rock star cliché going – groupies, drugs, relationship strains, dodgy business deals, bad advice and financial ruin. Just look at the cast; David Essex, Adam Faith, Keith Moon, Marty Wilde, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe – even JR out of Dallas, Larry Hagman, turns up as a horrid manager. It’s a very dark film, touching on the industry’s sexism (women, in this film, are usually groupies) and it’s one of the few rock films that seems to be eager to make a point. Its message: the music business is sleazy, wretched and morally corrupt and preys on those dreamers who want so much to make the leap from fandom to having a piece of the action for themselves. Steve Brookstein probably watches it and cries. This film is wholeheartedly entertaining, and even sort of profound.

Scandinavian Pop

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Annie “I Know UR Girlfriend Hates Me”

I’ve loved all things Scandinavian since I first heard ABBA’s “Greatest Hits Vol. 2” from the comfort of my crib (not in the MTV sense) when I was about three years old, and I’m open to the criticism that my musical taste hasn’t become much more sophisticated since then. “The Name Of The Game” was number one on the day I was born. Perhaps I was a viking in a previous life. It does seem though, that the pop music from that part of Europe is – unlike my efforts to account for my love of Scandinavian pop of all stripes – effortlessly uncomplicated. And so whistleable! Is it a response to the lack of daylight up there? Recently we have seen a wave of new Scandinavian pop groups release a body of amazingly good pop music. In the immediate wake of terrific albums by Annie, The Knife and Robyn, a glut of brilliant Nordic pop has emerged, much of it synthpop. Northern Europe has a long tradition in this regard, think of ABBA’s “The Visitors” as the jump off point. Giving the synths a swerve meanwhile, are The Concretes and Peter, Bjorn and John – the latter gave the world the bothersome or brilliant (depending on your fancy) “Young Folks”. Whatever instruments they employ, or whether they bother to learn an instrument at all (see Pay TV below), from Bergen to Stockholm, from Reykjavik to Silkeborg, the mood is vibrant, colourful, breezy pop. Amen to that.

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Pay TV “Fashion Report”

Back in the 1990s of course, there was “Scando-pop”. This was a sort of scene-but-not-really based loosely around the Tambourine studios in Malmo. With producer Tore Johansson at the helm, The Cardigan’s best records were created here, alongside a series of brilliant (although overlooked on these shores) releases by Eggstone. The sound was literally wooden; the antique-pine acoustics of the studio, ancient instruments and brittle sounding drums led to a beautiful, icy sound. The Cardigan’s “Life” LP is a great example of this. It could hardly have been more twee if you’d stuck a slide in its hair and plopped a lollipop in its mouth. These people had obviously spent some time in the company of the back catalogue of “él records”. Operating elsewhere, and missing out on the Tore magic, there were meat ‘n’ potatoes rockers Kent, the practically bipolar Wannadies and Whale, the latter posessing it must be said a rather knockabout sense of humour. Anyone who remembers Whale’s “Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe” or “Young Dumb ‘N’ Full Of Cum” will attest to the rather irritating “wackiness” of the duo. If they’d recorded a single called “Look! My Dog Is Wearing The Sunglasses! Hoho!”, you wouldn’t have blinked an eyelid. Iceland’s Emiliana Torrini tried and failed to have hits here, although she did co-write Kylie’s hit “Slow”. Both of her albums are well worth a listen, and “Unemployed In Summertime” is one of the great lost singles of the 1990s. The rather more abstruse Stina Nordenstam could and perhaps should have had proper hits here, but remains a cult figure.

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Emiliana Torrini “Unemployed In Summertime”

Now however, Scandinavian pop doesn’t sound so exotic, it doesn’t sound like it’s being produced in some outpost. Much of the most vital pop music of the past five years has been indebted to the likes of Royksopp and The Knife. Annie’s brilliant 2005 single “Heartbeat” was produced by the former, while The Knife used their royalties from the Sony advert which used Jose Gonzalez’s cover of “Heartbeats” to set up a record label. The UK’s most prolifically brilliant producers and songwriters, Richard X and Xenomania, have obviously been paying attention. Meanwhile Denmark’s Alphabeat are spearheading the so-called Wonky Pop movement, bringing bright brash pop to the sort of grimy sweaty clubs where you imagine a lot of trilbies get handed in to the cloak room. They appear to be going through a critical backlash of sorts at the moment, their album took a bit of a drubbing in the music press, but even dogs in the street know that “Fascination” is one of the best singles of the year so far. In 2008, our Northern European cousins are at the heart of pop.

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Alphabeat “Fascination”

As some of our readers will know, Lykke Li’s “Youth Novels” is one of the better LP releases of this year so far. Its pared-back sound has made it a hit on alternative radio, on Radio 2 and at festivals throughout Europe. Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John produced it, and the likes of “I’m Good, I’m Gone” , “Little Bit” and “Handing High” are lovely enough that you probably wouldn’t actually mind them reaching “Young Folks”-level omnipresence. Lykke Li is one of the guests on compatriot Kleerup’s new self-titled album. He collaborated with Robyn on “With Every Heartbeat” – possibly the greatest single of 2007. Elsewhere half-sisters Neneh Cherry and Titiyo guest. The album has already been a top 10 hit in his homeland. Swedish pop is in a particular healthy state at the moment. Even its “melodifestivalen” (the route by which you may become their entry for the Eurovision song contest) displays brilliant imaginative pop. Recent participants Pay TV’s current single “Fashion Report” is incredible, see its disturbing but compelling video here. It’s part “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”, part “I’d Rather Jack”. With a dollop of KLF style black-humour on top. If you like this you’ll like Bodies Without Organs – formed by ex members of Army Of Lovers, very camp but possibly too clever for their own good on occasion. But what do you expect from a group who name themselves after a concept from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari? For those of you who miss The Knife (currently on hiatus), Zeigeist’s LP “The Jade Motel” is a like a slightly more cheerful, younger sister to “Silent Shout”.

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Lykke Li “I’m Good I’m Gone”

Most exciting of all though is the expected arrival (in October) of Annie’s new album “Don’t Stop”. A megamix of tracks from the album has been on a tour of the internet recently and it sounds completely brilliant. Her extraordinary debut set, “Anniemal”, stalled despite being one of the very best pop albums of the last 10 years. Hopefully this time proper fame will beckon, and to this end she has worked with pop-production gods of our time, Xenomania (as well as her usual collaborators Richard X and Timo Kaukolampi). Last time out, fellow Bergen dwellers Royksopp helped out, this time it’s fellow Bergen dweller Fredrick from Datarock who puts in an appearance (on the energetic “Misery”). Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand contributes guitar to “Loco” and “My Love Is Better” (Girls Aloud also contributed to the latter, but record company politics have seen to it that their vocals have been removed). If what’s been leaked on the internet so far is anything to go by, “Don’t Stop” will be the best pop LP of 2008.

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