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Audiotart

Stricken City’s guitarist Iain Pettifer once said he “really wanted to be on The OC, and then it got cancelled”. Essentially, Stricken City is a band that one could definitely see taking to the stage of the infamous Bait Shop in The OC and becoming a favourite of Seth Cohen’s.

The London four-piece’s latest single, ‘Lost Art’ instantly lifts your spirits and conjures up memories of the summer, being by the coast with your friends and, most importantly, just having fun.

Combine front woman Rebekah Raa’s striking vocals – which bear a resemblance to Karen O’s distinctive voice – with a quirky melody, consisting of only a guitar, bass and drums, and the end result is captivating indie pop with a twist.

‘Lost Art’ is sure to be dance floor filler in indie clubs across the country. I dare you not to dance when listening to this track.

‘Sooner Or Later the Permanent You will perform Magic Tricks for Sheila until she’s Out Of Order. Being a Drag Addict, you’ll make the Bad Call of telling a White Lie about the Night In Question. Remember, you’re only an Alibi for your Remote Control, Freak. To review this message again press Ctrl Alt Del,’ reads the inside sleeve of ‘The Elephant in the Room’.

What does drawing upon the album tracks in this way signify, you ask? I have no idea – I just thought it was attention-grabbing and felt like sharing it.

‘The Elephant in the Room’ is Blackmarket’s debut album. The term ‘elephant in the room’ refers to something that’s impossible to overlook, yet people ignore it and choose to concern themselves with other things. Maybe the album title is the Lake Havasu-based quartet’s way of telling the world that everyone should focus their attention on them because they don’t deserve to be overlooked. Then again, maybe not.

‘The Elephant in the Room’ starts off well. Blackmarket are instantly likable. However, after a few tracks they get a little mind-numbing. Daryl Lamont has a striking voice, and the guitar riffs are infectious, but it is often difficult to differentiate between the tracks.

Blackmarket shouldn’t be completely written off. ‘The Elephant in the Room’ is a grower and hopefully really comes alive during a live show.

Take a pinch of witty lyrics and grimy beats from Lady Sovereign, a dollop of Lily Allen’s butter-wouldn’t-melt vocals and a whole lot of M.I.A’s, well…everything, and you have Hertfordshire’s 16-year-old Charli XCX.

Charli XCX got a record deal after making her debut album ‘14’ at the age of 14 so she could sell it to her school friends. She plays all the instruments on her tracks – synths, drums, guitar, bass, piano and tambourine – and writes all of her own songs.

On the electro-pop-tinged track ‘Emelline’ – evoking resemblances to The Pipettes at times – Charli XCX emits megaphone-fuzzed vocals over a grimy bassline, interspersed with school-girl shrieks, which make you think ‘WTF?!’ during the first few seconds before becoming more and more addictive to listen to.

In a strong contrast to ‘Emelline’, the simple, melodic synths and beats of ‘Art Bitch’ flatter Charli XCX’s smooth vocals as she sings about two of her friends “who live their lives inside all things artistic. They crave to be original, and I love them. You can’t label an Art Bitch – she moves around too much, finds new places, new clothes and new lives all the time”.

Charli XCX may well become 2009’s leader of the Art Bitches. That’s a compliment, folks.

Remember ‘Hey There Delilah’? You probably loved it when you first heard it. Then months of constantly being overplayed on the radio and on TV drove you mad and made you reach for the earplugs. Well, that was the case for me anyway.

Now the twice-Grammy-nominated Chicago-based Plain White T’s have returned with ‘Natural Disaster’, the first single from sophomore album ‘Big Bad World’.

Upon the first listen (and second, third, forth…) ‘Natural Disaster’ sounds like something Pete Wentz wrote on an off-day. The lyrics are dull, Tom Higgenson’s vocals lack passion, and the instrumental is monotonous.

Quite simply, the song is a (musical) disaster. Now, where are my earplugs?