Songs You Must Hear Now!

Alphabeat “What Is Happening” These decidedly unmelancholy Danes dress up a breakup song with a gorgeous, Day-Glo pop melody, Philly soul strings, and the greatest chorus Wham! never wrote.

Americana mise-en-scène and piano-tinkling cocaine reference.

5. Cazals “Somebody, Somewhere” Brits approved by Parisian hipster label Kitsuné artfully emote like Elvis Costello, then strut o shamelessly into a skinny-tie karaoke chorus.

Owens) stir up a feedback-and-keyboards whirlpool that dizzyingly shifts from gloom to stoner psych to gospel to garage.

9. Duffy “Rain on Your Parade” The strings come on like an overheated cathedral of teen-pop drama, and Du y doesn’t disappoint, kissing o a loser lover with a masterfully petulant quaver.

10. An Horse “Warm Hands”

This scru y Aussie duo sound like Tegan and Sara being chased down a dark subway tunnel; originally (and more appropriately) titled “Scared as Fuck.”

a hypnotically ickering 8mm home movie.

2. Daniel Rossen “Too Little Too Late” In a moving tribute to hard-bitten pop trollop JoJo (and as a birthday gift for bandmate Ed Droste), the Grizzly Bear singer-guitarist reinterprets her 2006 hit as a trembling acoustic hymn.

11. DJ Babu, feat. M.O. P. “Dearly Departed” From Babu’s Duck Season Vol. 3 mix tape, the Beat Junkie DJ crafts a sumptuously soulful Latin brass concerto and invites Brooklyn’s legendary brutes to L. A., where they’ll still “call you a bitch like Isiah Thomas.”

Elzhi, feat. Royce Da 5’ 9” “Motown 25” The Motor City MC’s ery, mind-bendingly intricate rhyme patterns rival Jacko’s dancing on the titular TV special. Call it a verbal moonwalk.

3. G Spot Boyz “Stanky Legg” Gulp eight Baileys, crank this synth-dappled crunk-lite jam, and you too can feel the magic of a Dallas strip-club bu et. Legs’n’Eggs, y’all!

Illinois “Hang On” Arch Archibald’s laconic delivery raises questions about the band’s sincerity, but the heroic, arcing guitar lines and gutbucket beat answer them. Sneakily epic.

14. Sexy Kids “Sisters Are Forever” An impossibly catchy ode to, yep, sisterhood proves once again that the Scottish have a monopoly on nonirritating twee pop.

7. Ty Segall “Pretty Baby

( You’re So Ugly)” Look out, Jay Reatard—this Bay Area one-man band has even scuzzier static in his garage.

12. Women “Black Rice” Vinyl crackle and lightly plucked guitar ease into a sunny, sparsely arranged splash of melody. Imagine the Shins glimpsed through

15. The Darling Downs “Circa ’ 65” The former frontmen of underloved Australian rockers Died Pretty and the Scientists team for a banjo-folk moan of despair and regret. Drink up!

4. Motel Motel “Coffee” The best Ryan Adams or Cold War Kids song of 2008, complete with raspy

8. Crystal Antlers “A Thousand Eyes” Cali kids (produced by the Mars Volta’s Ikey

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Alphabeat

Home base: London (by way
of Denmark) Began: 2004
Influences: “Early Madonna
and David Bowie’s Let’s Dance
are very important to us,” says
guitarist Anders Bønløkke.
Sounds like: “Classic pop and
songs you can dance and have
a party to.” Latest release:
This Is Alphabeat (EMI)

Illinois

Home base: Bucks County,
Pennsylvania Began: 2004
Influences: “Ween and the
Monkees,” reveals singer Chris
“Arch” Archibald. Sounds like:
“It’s all over the map, but let’s
say suburban soul or classic
folk with R&B rhythms.” Latest
release: The Adventures
of Kid Catastrophe (+ 1)

Elzhi

Home base: Detroit Began:
1998 Influences: “Back in
the day it was Rakim and Big
Daddy Kane,” says Elzhi. “Now
it’s Coldplay and Radiohead.”
Sounds like: “My beats are
techno, Motown, and rock. All
Detroit sounds. And lyrically, I’m
a straight-up scientist.” Latest
release: The Preface (Fat Beats)

FROM LEF T: DAVID TI TLO W; JASON MCDONALD; JEREM Y DEPU TAT

42 JANUAR Y 2009 GE T MUSIC NEWS 24 7 AT SPIN.COM