Girls with synths!!

It seems as if the days of skinny boys in skinnier jeans with outrageous fringes dominating the trendwaves is coming to an end. For 2009, it appears that solo ladies throwing it back to the synth-driven pop of the 80's are about to take centre stage. First disclaimer*: I actually don't think much of any of this. Some of it is catchy, but I doubt any of it will be making it onto the Small Hours, which is course the only barometer worth mentioning. Leading the charge are UK's Little Boots, LaRoux and Lady GaGa from the US. Little Boots seems to have something, with hints of Crystal Castles' crazy sounds to her music, and the electro element of a higher quality than most. Stuck on Repeat is electro-pop as it was meant to be. There are even shades of the likes of Haddaway and that crowd of 90s frommage electronique classique hidden in there. A lot of the dominant synths and her voice are very much grounded in 80's pop though. She is already lined up to play with Ting Tings and Hot Chip this year so she is clearly on the right path. LaRoux's Quicksand is a seriously catchy pop tune, which will doubtless have us all dancing like crazy this year, but it's hard to fully disassociate the music from that of Britney Spears. Lady Gaga seems to be the mouthiest of the lot, and for this will probably be the most successful, but to be honest she pisses me off. The synths here are hugely misused and abused and her vocals are just filthy for no reason. She should be stopped before she thinks she is important.

In a more indie direction, Florence and the Machine, who has already been a talking point in blogland in 2008, is also being tipped for good things this year. I include her in this post as she is a woman. And a solo artist. Even though she doesn't really use synths.

LaRoux plays the Academy 16th March
Lady GaGa plays the O2 on Feb 1st
That's Little Boots in the photo
* I thought there'd be more than one disclaimer