Otur
Pepperbox hill
Vapen & Godis
I openly admit to being a pop princess, but even I need to shake my corduroy-clad booty every once in awhile. And this is just the sort of thing that will have me shimmying across the kitchen floor, waving my pot scrubber as if it were one of those goofy glo sticks. "Apart" is especially fantastic. Slip it into the stereo at the next family get-together, and you might even convince your 13-year-old niece that you've got a bit of cool in you yet. Play her "Enough" and you can also feel smug in the knowledge that you're being a good influence by contributing to her sense of female empowerment. You may already know Otur as Emma Bates, one-third of The Lightbulb Project. Her former bandmates Christina Roos and Hanna Göransson went on to form Swedish girl group Cat5, and unsurprisingly the two projects share a similar sound. But there seems to be more substance here than the Cat5 hits of the moment, "Sexy" and "Stretch and bend". A bit too much substance at the end, actually, as she tried to take me somewhere I wasn't prepared to go, at least not without a good hefty supply of chemical stimulants. Overall though, it's a winning blend of DIY electro-pop and ethereal vocals that will not only appeal to the closet dance diva – I suspect the boys will also appreciate the sweet innocence of Emma's honey voice.
- Stacey Shackford