Two years ago on a whim I declared that Young Blood by The Naked and Famous would have won the Peter Bjorn and John Award for the Catchiest Indie Pop Song of the Summer had it not been for Pumped Up Kicks. I actually liked that fake award idea so much last year, I actually made it a real thing (and awarded it to The Lumineers). Now it is time to hand out the second official award. But before that, let take a look at some of the other contenders from this year.
Legacy Artist: Diane Young – Vampire Weekend: With a lackluster first couple months of the year music wise, Vampire Weekend was poised to finally break into the mainstream with their most accessible song yet, a cross between Buddy Holly and their usual Ivy League humor. Alas that sadly did not happen but those of us in the now had a great summer song to add to the playlist.
Honorable Mention: Get Lucky – Daughter: Daughter has made some great indie music but really is too depressing to be considered “catchy” but of the millions of Get Lucky covers that blanketed the internets this summer, their version is far and away the best, most interesting, and proved there are many different ways to get lucky.
5. The Wire – Haim: A late addition which came in at, dare I say, the wire (very bad pun intended). A great teaser for the group’s full length debut album coming out this fall.
4. Change – Churchill: Well, this is weird. The group was on the precipice of stardom with an absurdly catchy first single that could have made the band this years The Lunineers or at the very least Of Monsters of Men. Then out of nowhere the group dropped out of their tours opening up for Sara Bareilles this summer and the upcoming Pink tour this fall and broke up. I do not think this is going to be a The Civil Wars situation where they still end up recording an album full of awesome tension.
3. Torpedo – Jillette Johnson: This song is pretty awesome as it is, but it also gets bonus points for the Etch-a-Sketch themed lyrics video. Even more bonus points for putting DVD’s of Freaks and Geeks and The Virgin Diaries in the background.
2. Pompeii – Batille: Quite simply the best use chanting in a song since Hooked On a Feeling. (Sorry Enigma.)
1. Royals – Lorde: I may be the worst prognosticator of music on the internet so I rarely tag anyone with the “Next Big Thing” tag because it seems to be the kiss of death for an artist (see Churchill who literally died before they could break big). But let me hop into Scooter Time Machine back to June when I kind of hyperbolically called this song, “not only is it the best song of the year so far, but it is the best anti-materialistic song since Ante Up, the best song by a teenager since Genie In a Bottle, and the greatest song ever to come out of New Zealand.” Fast forward three months and the song is even out performing the new Lady Gaga song. It has become so popular; it is a stretch to even to still be calling it indie-pop at this point. But since I jumped on the bandwagon back in March when it was a weird pop song from New Zealand, I will give it the title.
No comments:
Post a Comment