It's Britney Bitch!
Brit Brit returned this year with an incredible album, the dance floor ready "Femme Fatale" and while everyone knows that she may be "crazier than a ..." Brit Brit's music is always on the cutting edge of pop, she just knows how to do it right. The singles from "Femme Fatale," were indeed everywhere from the euphoria of "Til the world ends.." to the bouncier than bubblegum on a summer day of "I wanna go," you could not escape a Brit Brit song and the question is why would you want to?
It was definitely a year of women in pop, across the ocean to the island of Japan (doesn't that sound like really exotic?) Namie Amuro, raked up another hit and cemented her further stake as basically the Queen of J Hip Pop with her compilation album of colloborations "Checkmate," the virtually flawless all around graceful diva's "Checkmate" spanned over several years of Namie's biggest colloborative efforts with new singles "Unusual," "Make It Happen," "Superwoman," as well as remixes of already perfect songs "Want Me, Want Me." While "Checkmate" is not a thorough new album, the new singles already showcased that Amuro has no sights on slowing down. She toured in 2011 and is preparing for an album next year.
Dubstep was the key dance trend of 2011 other than Will.I.Am's domination and re-iteration of 90s eurostyle dance beats, dubstep became literally uncontrollable. Skrillex amongst others are ushering in the return of wub wub wub music. And while I can't say I particularly love dubstep, I did love one album that spawned from such a November monster and that was English pop singer Katy B. Katy B's "On a Mission," is a good example of what dubstep can be if it sticks to flourishes, accents and other-genre hooks and bells. "On a mission," was a flawless record as the smooth voiced Katy B sang over pulsating dubstep breakdowns without sounding like a bloodless robot. Dubstep done right.
Also across the pond another songtress snapped up my pop heart this year, the clever Natalia Kills. It's hard to say what will happen with Kills brand of dark murder pop (if she wants real street cred it's time to make a visit to Mr.Nick Cave) and while she aimed for perfection on her "perfectionist" album she fell short. The album suffered from too many cooks in the proverbial kitchen, however despite such a shortcoming the album was still a very good ride of pop hooks and catchy songwriting. More importantly with the re-release of "Perfectionist," and the insanely awesome "Lights Out," if Kills can get a chokehold on exactly what kind of music she wants to make it'll be for a really good time.
and there you have it :)
In keeping with a dark theme, it was really a year of the best times and a year of volatile ones. My favorite dandy with neurosis Chris Corner of IAMX released the heavily anticipated "Volatile Times," a follow up to baroque and Berlin-esque dance music with Corner's signature light as a feather, vulnerable as ever could be voice and highly introspective lyrics.
