The Chalets - I'm a sucker for boy/girl call and answer song presentations, so The Chalets might be made just for my ears. The music producer for Grey's also seems to like them, as Sexy Mistake and Theme From Chalets have both made appearances on the show.
- Sexy Mistake - "If you kiss me / I will feel nothing / You can do what you like to please me"
- Theme From Chalets - This song really ought to be a big hit single, and I have no idea why it's not. Maybe because it's really obvious they're British from the lyrics.
- Two Chord Song - A nice bit of self-awareness and ironic detachment, this is all about a band that comes together without much in the way of talent, hit one song and then break up.
Dead Disco
- Automatic - This has a catchy, nearly percussive guitar line and some nice, not great, vocals. As a whole it just works very well for me
The Long Blondes - They sound like
Shiny Toy Guns' Le Disko, but they do all it all the time, and their songs actually make sense rather than being a collection of neat-o sounding phrases.
- Giddy Stratospheres - I love the soaring, scratchy guitars floating on in the background combined with the glimmering, shimmering type sound of the main guitar sound.
- Heaven Help the New Girl - Very much in the same narrative space as The Dresden Dolls' Good Day, and almost as good. Instead of talking to the man, the song is directed at his most recent ex-girlfriend and has a "taking you under my wing" kind of vibe.
- In the Company of Women - "I don't need it spelled out to me / I know she's keeping him company / And I can see the signs / He likes her company better than mine, better than mine"
Lucky Soul
- Ain't Never Been Cool - This song has a great older style feel to it, and just is brimming with pop-goodness.
- Baby I'm Broke - A much slower song than Ain't Never Been Cool, I waver back and forth on whether it's great or just okay, mostly because I'm not sure if Ali Howard's vocals are right for it. "I might as well throw my head back and shout at the clouds / Yeah, for all the good that it'll do now"
- Lips are Unhappy - Another straight up pop song that's sweet without being like overly sugary frosting. Mmm, delicous.
The Pipettes - A girl group patterned after 60's trios, The Pipettes are a whole bag of fun, with extra fun on the side and do a great job of balancing a genre with more than a hint of sugary sweetness with some hard won wisdom.
- Because It's Not Love (But It's Still a Feeling) "Touch a little tighter / Eyes a little brighter / Because it's not love / but it's still a feeling / no it's not love / but my body's reeling"
- A Winter's Sky - It's probably the closest they'll come to a lament, and the way they've slowed themselves down and added some echo to the lead vocal track gives a very lonely, wintery feeling.
- Dirty Mind - "He's got a dirty mind / Just don't know what you're going to find"
- Judy - I love the organ and finger snaps that start off the song, and the song has a funny cattiness to it. It makes me glad I was never a teenage girl.
- Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me - I usually hate the taptap-beat-tap drum beat that to me indicates unthinking pop pap, and normally I'm not fond of songs that have the drums almost overwhelm the instrumentation, but they both totally work here.