WE! ARE! YOUR FRIENDS!

Pop! Justice: 100% Solid Pop Music

This is a compilation put together by the people who run the Popjustice website. You sometimes hear about how great today's pop music is from the Freaky Trigger people, but I do not tend to hear actual pop music that much, as I have no TV and shun the music radio. So picking up this record was an interesting way of getting some idea of whether today's pop music is actually any good or not.

Today's pop music turns out to be complete genius. This record is on heavy rotation here in Carwash Mansions, and is furthermore ramping up the play charts on the iPod. Particularly awesome tracks include Justice v. Simian's 'We Are Your Friends', Rhianna's 'S.O.S.', Client's 'Lights Go Out', and so on. Rachel Stevens' track suggests that that LA ex song of hers might not have been a flash in the pan. Britney, the Sugababes, and Nelly Furtado all perform credibly too. But this is an album best enjoyed in the totality. Acquire it now and prove that you are not a rockist!

Justice v. Simian's 'We Are Your Friends' is in particular revealed as The Greatest Piece of Music Ever Recorded, all the most striking when you consider what a bunch of lame-ass indie no-hopers Simian are/were. These Justice fellows are remixer geniuses, with a perfect ear for what can be taken from a tune and turned into pop perfection if all the other flim flam is got rid of. How can you not love a tune with no lyrics but "BECAUSE WE! ARE! YOUR FRIENDS! YOU'LL NEVER BE ALONE AGAIN! COME ON!"? If this was the kind of thing they played in nightclubs I would be putting on my dancing shoes more often (or at all).

One slight downside – many of the acts are not actually proper pop tart outfits but actual people who write their own songs and stuff, including several Ladytron-style neo electropop bands (and the Tron themselves). So in a way I feel like I have got less pop bang for my buck. But the compilation still ROCKS.