If "The Beaties" doesn't work out as a name for my diabetic girl group, I suppose I can settle for current second place: Frankie and the Key-Tones.
So hey, two new albums (sort of three) on the top ten! Both doing something...I dunno, not similar exactly, but not unrelated.
Kelis's album is a sorta techno/house thang with Kelis's distinctive warble over top -- probably anathema to plenty of people but I'm genuinely affected, especially now that I can map the last two songs ("Braver" and "Song for the Baby") onto the rest of it as a BABY NARRATIVE. She's stupid in love, makes some mistakes, follows her heart, realizes she's got nuthin' but hey wait, this baby saves her! And there's this oddly intimate feeling, like in Talking Heads "Up All Night" or flashes of "Isn't She Lovely," just Kelis and baby hanging out. People hanging out with their babies while producing club music in their basement is, it turns out, a BIG WIN for me in 2010. Might overtake Ke$ha if she continues to fade (which would just make Animal even more like Secret Life of the Veronicas than it feels already).
A-Trak's new Dirty South Dance mix isn't an obvious classic I lurve but I dig the way that A-Trak finds just the right melodies for unexpectedly melodic southern hip-hop of recent years (not just Autotuned, also poorly sung a la Soulja Boy). He brings out the beauty again this time out, but in a way that I'm finding more sophisticated, produces a bit more admiration than the last one, whose cheap thrills ultimately endeared it more to me (and my wife -- it's a must-have on most car trips).
Anyway, there's something about that unexpected melodic connection -- and in a way this is what I'm getting from Goldfrapp and Marina and the Diamonds, too. Subject for a future essay, maybe...
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