12 Days of Plumcake: Four Calling Birds
So can I tell you a dirty little secret? I have ridiculous affinity for Cockney/Mockney girl pop.
Lily Allen, Kate Bush, Amy Winehouse, M.I.A, I love them all. Here are four of my favorites.
Kate Nash was born in 1987. She’s got a bit of Regina Spektor and a bit of Lily Allen but I like her better than both of them combined. However I keep getting Kate Nash confused with Kate Bush because
a) It’s only a two letter difference
b)I’m old and I swear if any of you young whippersnappers say “Kate Bush? Who’s that?” I’ll pop a goiter.
Here’s Foundations off her album Made of Bricks. I question her shoes.
I love Lily Allen because although she’s a hot mess, she’s an identifiable hot mess. We all know a girl like her, the endearing girl who Just Wants To Be Loved but knows she left her panties at whathisnames’ house.
(This has Never Happened To Me, nor have I ever said “I can’t remember his name, but I’m pretty sure it was one of the apostles.”) I love this video –the lip synching is almost as bad as the Kate Nash video, but I think this one is on purpose– of Lily Allen’s Knock ‘em Out off Alright, Still featuring a delightfully chavvy big girl.
Okay, I don’t think Amy Winehouse is a major and inevitably tragic talent and I don’t think Mark Ronson is Teh Greatest Producer Evar. I’ve got better producers on speed dial — although I’m avoiding one of them because I was supposed to make him eggnog, and as of yet I haven’t done it as much as failed to do it in every conceivable way. Whoops.
Yes the video of Back to Black off the eponymous album is more than a little hokey, but I’m a sucker for a classic hearse.
M.I.A. on the other hand is a significant talent. I saw some of her installation art by happy accident a few years ago in London and bought Arular later that day. Her enormous hit Paper Planes off 2007′s >Kala (named after her mother) isn’t exactly a good message for the kids, but I find it –particularly the video– compelling and infuriatingly catchy.
I love, love, love Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash. Add a little bit of Adelle and Charlotte Sometimes, and I am in musical heaven.
You missed Adelle!
they’re all guilty pleasures, but they are fun. I adored “Knock ‘em out” the first time heard it on the radio. And Yeah for fan videos!
Oh, how I love Mockney Girl pop- I have all the songs you just linked on my iPod in heavy rotation.
Ah, I love those ladies too! I’m also a fan of Lady Sovereign, though she’s more grime than pop. There’s just something about saying the “th” sound as an “f.”
Alas, I’ve used many of Lily’s excuses while waiting tables. “Oh, you want to go to the strip club? I dunno, that doesn’t seem like a good place for a pregnant lady to go, does it?”
I usually don