January's Jams

Here's the scoop on two UK ladies whose albums I am waiting for in 2011.

1)You can preview the new album from Anna Calvi here. I discovered it today and couldn't stop listening to it. It's as though PJ Harvey decided to go lush and orchestral. Speaking of, Polly Jean is also releasing something this year so maybe I should up the count to 3 ladies...

For those looking for a show before Calvi starts playing bigger venues, le tour de force dates. Damn, she's planning on being in Rotterdam in the Spring, as well as other NL dates in the near future. Dutch friends, and my NYC friends too, check her out when she comes to town on my behalf. Some of the press is saying her live shows are tres magnifique.

2)My party anthem of choice this month, Louder, by Katy B. hit the airwaves earlier this year, my first exposure its rotation on Dutch MTV's little sister TMF. And I cannot get the damn song out of my head. The bonkers beats, Miss B's dubstep princess vocals, the smooth and the amped up alternating in dancefloor perfection all swirl into a single, that added with other tracks, hint at an album ready to blow up:



I also like that this video is about girls just hanging at the record shop 'n stuff. Girls can be crate diggers too! And that she isn't parading in skankwear, but rather prefers embellished hoodies and sporting her indie label's logo tee. Yet you still buy her vocal delivery as slinky, icily sexy, and totally femme.

With brilliant lyrical spareness, it's a treatise on everlasting carousing doubling as metaphor for unquenchable ambition, or even insatiable desire for sensory overload of all types, not just auditory. Works in the club, for a workout, or for psyching one's self up for a harrowing challenge to surmount.

Katy has cited Teedra Moses as one of her influences (alongside more bombastic R & B divas) and then it all made sense. She has a very similar voice and phrasing, as if the Young Lioness had been born an auburn-haired South Londoner. Both have an almost feather-light touch in the midst of intricately produced beat-laden tracks. The melodies tend toward infectious but not necessarily hummable, and thankfully melisma free. And neither lady is afraid of a hard edge.

I quiver with anticipation.