The beginning of post below this one is quickly degenerating into an excitement-filled mess, so, yes, I am dedicating ANOTHER one to these Le Kid songs. The yearlong wait was worth it if these four new (once again, new beyond certain circles, not fresh out of the studio) songs are any indication. Stream all of the songs mentioned below here."America" (streaming below) might just be my favorite. Pop that makes me think of Gwen Stefani's "Cool" and Kylie's restrained, beautiful, uptempo moments, less because it sounds like them and more because it's similarly swoonworthy, it's grown-up but accessible, sweet without being too precious, Swede-appropriately and unselfconsciously poppy while also more international than many of my beloved Swedish artists usually are. Like being gently swept up in a gorgeous glittery pop whirlwind.
"Escape" is similarly dreamy. The vocal melody is sugary sweet enough to have been sung by a '90s girl group or '80s teen pop starlet, but the instrumentation's electronic sounds are enhanced by dipping and soaring strings that are embedded deep in the background but which give the song a subdued keening emotional edge it might not otherwise had.
"We Are The Drums" has verses with a "Ting Tings produced by RedOne" sound, though they're prettier, less deliberately abrasive than the Swedish-Moroccan musician's verses usually are (maybe partly because of the vocals--can we talk about the singing throughout all these songs for a moment? All female, it's coo-y without being overly coquettish, instantly appealing and accessible, often full of a youthful joie de vivre but capable of turning up or down the naïvety...basically a perfect match for these songs), while the chorus is much more expansive than you'd expect from what precedes it, with hints of a chanted group affirmation.
"Seventeen" is probably the closest to being an outlier out of the set, with a production style that is more guitar-using stop-start than electronically filling in all gaps in sound. It also sets aside the grown-up swoony style for cheekier music and lyrics, with the singers, frustrated at the thought that the guy they've got their eyes on might pass them up for being out of their teenage years ("I can be cute/I can be dumb/and I'm not even illegally young").
The excellent "Telephone" and "Mercy Mercy" are also streaming there, but I've written about them before.
There's something about their melody work that makes me think of the '80s, but not in an obvious way already being done by many others; it's really just work that is informed by pop's past but modern, made by people whose love of great music, especially great pop, comes across with each note.
No music is available for purchase yet, but their debut album will be coming out on Roxy Recordings this year. In the meantime, follow Le Kid on MySpace and Blogger.
