Florrie - Too Young To Remember (Video)

Florrie’s choppy new pop song Too Young To Remember probably isn’t about how long she’s been tipped as One To Watch by the people of the internet; but let’s face it, it’s been some time now. In fact it’s nearly 5 years since she put her first record out.

Thankfully with its sharp hook and lyrical retro references that include video games (Super Mario), movies (Karate Kid) and even song titles (Madonna’s Justify My Love and EMF’s Unbelievable – good choices Florrie) as well as some MØ like ‘heys’ after the main hook, Florrie can remain on that One to Watch list, because this one’s the pop equivalent of a snappy dresser.

The simple video, which features a colour palette that’s like a softer version of Meghan Trainor’s All About That Bass finds even more retro references - Frankie Goes To Hollywood T-Shirts rebranded as Florrie ones, slinkys, floppy disks, cassettes, a rather oddly coloured Rubik’s cube and big hair. Yet despite all the nostalgia here Too Young To Remember sounds likely a relatively modern pop song. 

The oddest thing about this video? It was ‘premiered’ about half an hour ago today by of all people – fashion retailer H&M. (#HMLovesMusic they tweeted). What’s odd about this? First, because we watched the video yesterday on a Japanese website, so we’re a bit confused about this premier stuff and what it actually means. Second because, well, it’s H&M. (But don’t forget folks #HMLovesMusic). But never mind all that, its the music that's important not who hosts it and Too Young To Remember is a solid piece of toe tapping pop.

Florrie - Too Young To Remember (Video)

Florrie - Free Falling (Video)

Ah the rock ‘n’ roll dream. Would you like to live it?

Remember Pete Doherty and The Libertines? What sort of house do you think he lives in? Our guess would be some sort of scuzzy, dirty squat of a flat with litter, empty beer cans and cigarette butts strewn all over the place. There’d probably be a few random strangers slumped half unconscious against a soiled sofa in the living room and a sink full of unwashed plates and mouldy food scraps in the kitchen as well. The only artwork would be Pete’s creations, painted with his own blood. Of course some people would say that this just shows that Pete is truly rock ‘n’ roll. 

Frankly, if that’s living the dream then we’d quite happily defect to the land of pop and shack up at Florrie’s place. Judging from this video for Free Falling, the second song to be released from her forthcoming Sirens EP, it is at least a lot cleaner and more spacious than where we imagine Doherty to be shacked up; albeit Florrie’s place has the type of architecture that has now become a cliché, with its urban mainstream minimalism with lots of glass, blonde wood floors, obligatory Barcelona chair and footstool*. Oh and what’s with the boring slightly scary looking boyfriend ? He looks like he’s being doing as many drugs as Doherty.

So in conclusion: The house of pop is a lot nicer than the house of rock, but often full of cliché. 

Thankfully Free Falling with its chorus-verse-chorus upside down construction manages to avoid those clichés, which we guess is why Florrie is a potential pop star rather than an architect or interior designer.

Catch its hookiness below.

*Footnote : No we realise we're not an architecture blog, but technically we're more qualified to write about building design than we are music. Just for your information.

Florrie - Free Falling (Video)

Florrie - Seashells

Imagine pop music being a weird housing estate where some roads are lined with gold and others are flowing with sewerage. There you’ll find everything from small two bedroom Victorian terraces (Sam Smith has just been given his key and moved in after initially shacking up on Disclosure’s sofa) to mansions (mainly owned by Beyoncé) with extravagant marbled floored basement swimming pools. 

It’s on the streets of this estate where the homeless pop people and pop wannabees also lurk. Some were once comfortable in standard three bedroom semis but have now been kicked out after failing to pay the rent / mortgage and are now having to self-build their own (they call them Kickstarter and Pledge houses), whilst others are sleeping rough trying to find a door or even a window to sneak through. It’s impossible for everyone to get through these windows or doors, often the landlords of pop only keep them open for very short spaces of time. 

It’s why Florrie is somewhat an anomaly, having been bashing on them for a number of years, never finding them fully closed, but as yet not having prised one open enough to get her own pad. 

2014 finds Florrie once again trying to rip the shutters apart. She returns with Seashells, a song from her new Sirens EP. It booms and bounds along with Bollywood instrumentation, repeated tongue twister repeated chanted lyrics and plenty of door kicking enthusiasm, which works rather well. Maybe there’s still a chance of her finding a place.

Florrie - Seashells

Florrie - Live A Little (Video)

If pop music was a ladder, we’re wondering what rung Florrie would be on now. In fact we’re wondering what type of ladder she would actually have at all. Would it be one of of those d-i-y step ladders that are never quite tall enough to make it easy to access your loft space or would she borrow a big long straight one from a window cleaner or builder and then realise that she can’t actually get it through the door of her house to access what she wants. Think about it. We may have just made some deep symbolic comment about the hierarchy of pop music, major labels, indies, what success actually is and scaling the dizzy heights. Or we could have just written a paragraph of complete waffle about devices designed to assist you in vertical travel.

Anyway, Florrie is taking her time with these ladders of pop which is fine with us if when she does attempt to put a foot on the next step it's as fun as Live A Little, which we’re told isn’t a single as such, just a gift. It also backs a campaign for some new in ear headphones, but as we're not getting those as a gift we're not stating what brand they are.

Live A Little is as punchy as Cheryl Cole in a Guildford nightclub with brassy stabs, police sirens and rocky guitars, but it all manages to contain itself within a hooky pop format. This is a good thing. Oh, and based on the fact that every drummer shows off their sex face whilst drumming, below you get to see Florrie’s (also see above). Now that's something to commit to memory.

Florrie - Live A Little (Video)

The Saturday Surf #7

Take a ‘semi-ironic’ hipstamatic photo of the sea / waves / beach / surf (we’ve yet to feature girls in their swimwear – possibly the most chosen photo of any ‘cool’ blog out there), a little bit of text and a handful of tracks that didn’t quite make it onto the blog this week and what have you got? Yes, it’s Breaking More Waves Saturday Surf, a fundamentally lazy blog post. So without further ado, here are a small handful of songs that we didn’t want to get swept away in the on-going tide of incoming new music and so are bundling together in one buy one get three free posting at the end of the week.

How many times have we posted about Rizzle Kicks on the blog? Six actually. So let’s make it seven with this choppy and banging re-invention of Down with the Trumpets by Star Slinger. “If you feel like embedding it on your blog that would be wickedddd,” state Sylvester and Rizzle on their very own blog. Consider it done boys.

Down With The Trumpets (Star Slinger Remix) by Rizzle Kicks

Next is electronic pop chanteuse Florrie, who has written a fascinating blog post on how she funds what she does. It’s great to read an artist being so open about how and where the money comes from and is lost; for instance Florrie reveals that she loses approximately £450 for every gig she plays, yet still makes more money than she loses, mainly from synchronization rights. Taken from her new 6 track EP Experiments which is released on June 14, this song Experimenting with Rugs is probably the best thing she’s done so far. There’s also an incredibly stylish video for the song which you can see here.

Experimenting With Rugs by Florrie

For your further consideration, here's some synth pop that sounds like it's 100% designed for a Kitsune compilation. Sleepy Age, a three piece from New Zealand, fall just on the right side of seaside pier gaudiness with this song Decor, which has enough infectious synth riffs to accompany the hooky fantasy line of "girls look better in your head than they do in your bed."

Sleepy Age 'Decore'

Finally meet Ronika, from Nottingham, who is bringing back electronic-disco flavours last heard back in the mid-80’s – the influences seem to be debut album Madonna and even more specifically the song Who Found Who by Jellybean featuring Elisa Fiorillo – now there’s a classic we haven’t played for a few years. The track we're streaming Forget Yourself is her new single and is released on Monday. Right we’re off to dig out our old Shalamar LP’s.

Ronika - Forget Yourself