My top ten tracks of 2008: #06 “Paris Is Burning,” Ladyhawke

5 Comments | Posted: December 23rd, 2008 | Filed under: Music, Video | Tags: , ,

A lot of what I’m calling “The New Pop” shares some similar DNA: the good bits of 80s acts like Wham! and the innumerable hordes that were unleashed from the Stock Aiken Waterman stockade. New Zealand’s Pip Brown started out playing in grunge bands before moving closer to punk with Two Lane Blacktop and into electronic pop with Teenager before embracing the pop she’d grown up with and recording under an alias shared by Rutger Hauer’s best collaboration with Matthew Broderick. “I wanted to make music that could put a smile on people’s faces and give them a feeling of nostalgia even though they may be hearing my songs for the first time,” Brown wrote in her biography on the Ladyhawke website.

That’s what “Paris Is Burning” is – instantly familiar, catchy, harkening back to a dozen other songs while aping none of them. Is it wildly experimental or blazing new territory? No, but it is utterly listenable, something I rank higher and higher as I get settled into my twilight years.

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5 Comments on “My top ten tracks of 2008: #06 “Paris Is Burning,” Ladyhawke”

  1. 1 carpboy said at 3:19 am on December 24th, 2008:

    Thanks for being able to explain the appeal for this song and Cut Copy’s “Hearts on Fire”. When I’ve had people ask me why I love In Ghost Colors so much I just sort of narrow my eyes at them, trying in vain to figure out how it’s even a question.

  2. 2 Patrick C. said at 3:05 am on December 25th, 2008:

    I like this song a lot, but it’s only my second favorite track with “Paris” in the title this year. First choice would have to be “Paris,” by the Friendly Fires. Have you heard this one, Kevin? It doesn’t have the vaguely New Wave-tone of the Ladyhawke song, but it’s equally danceable and gifted with a strong pop hook of its own.

    Somebody should mash them up, actually. That’d be awesome.

  3. 3 Kevin Church said at 3:47 am on December 25th, 2008:

    Shh, Patrick. Shh. Spoilers.

  4. 4 Arundel said at 11:11 pm on December 25th, 2008:

    Fun song, the first verse echoes “Cars”..

    Dunno if I already linked this or you know it, but the Pete Hammond mix of Alphabeat’s “Boyfriend”
    is more SAW than SAW ever was, it’s a joy.. also recalls “Domino Dancing”, just a great exuberant style:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stO8ZlS8XWE

  5. 5 Kevin Church said at 1:24 pm on December 26th, 2008:

    I really love Alphabeat, and that Hammond mix is incredible. (Also, again, spoilers!)

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