Jessica's Poptastic Tumblr

I’m excited about all the new super-cool instrument-playing girlbands coming onto the scene from the US at the moment, such as Haim, Deap Vally and now Feathers. They have a BIG electro sound and lovely pop vocals. I hope I’ll get the chance to see them live this year. Great Escape, are you listening?

Although Zara Larsson seems to be the next big teen pop star in Sweden, I only liked, not loved, her breakthrough song Uncover. However, I had high hopes for her EP, knowing she is managed by the brilliant Swedish company Ten (who are behind Erik Hassle and Icona Pop). The EP was finally released yesterday and I’ve only heard one of the new songs so far, but I’m impressed. Partly because Zara now sounds very much like Swedish teen pop legend Amy Diamond, but it’s also a great song in its own right.

Click here to listen

Bebe Black is on the line-up for this month’s This Must Be Pop Live, and I can’t wait to hear her perform her brilliant new single, Deathwish. The emotional electro-pop song was premiered on Radio 1 this week, and featured by The Guardian in their New Band of the Day column. It’s taken from an EP called Deathwish, which features two other new songs which are equally impressive. If you like what you hear, come along and see Bebe at TMBP Live on 22nd January at Queen of Hoxton.

It took a few listens for this song to click as a whole, but I had to keep trying cos the chorus is SO catchy! It would have been a great starting point for a One Direction song, complete with teen rebellion lyrics and the obligatory “nanana”s. MKTO credit Emanuel Kiriakou and Evan Kidd Bogart as their “founding fathers” so we can undoubtedly expect many more top pop tunes from this duo.

And in case you didn’t notice, the black guy in the band was the kid who played Walt in Lost! Yes, really!!

Vali is a new female singer signed to US label Rostrum Records, home of rappers such as Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller. Watching her video I don’t get the impression she’ll be the next Rihanna or Beyonce, or even the next Shontelle or Christina Milian, but I like the song anyway. It’s got a nice singalong chorus and it’s about nothing other than being happy and having fun. I think I can condone that.

Zara first became famous as a big voiced child when she won Talang 2008 (Sweden’s version of Britain’s Got Talent). She’s now 15 and about to release her first EP as a proper pop star. The lead single Uncover got a great reception online, racking up over a million video views - pretty impressive when she’s from a country with only 9 million citizens! It’s not a life-changing song, but the arrival of a new Swedish pop kid is always exciting due to the wealth of amazing songwriting and production talent they have on tap. Especially promising is that Zara is signed to TEN, the same company that looks after Erik Hassle and Icona Pop, as well as some of my favourite writers and producers. Therefore she is definitely one to watch!

The new songs from Girls Aloud’s Ten singles collection have leaked, and this one is definitely the most poptastic! I’m sad that none of the new songs sound like potential singles, suggesting there is unlikely to be any more after Beautiful Cause You Love Me. On The Metro is brilliant but it’s a “for the fans” song, too poppy to work on radio or in the charts, especially considering how Something New is faring (it fell to 8 on iTunes yesterday). But let’s forget all that depressing stuff, we have a new Girls Aloud song to enjoy!

Jhameel is one of my absolute favourite new discoveries of 2012, so it baffles me that after almost a year of being a fan I still don’t see anyone else raving about him. Nonetheless I’ll keep supporting him and I don’t doubt that he will have his breakthrough moment eventually. It was the same with Lady Gaga, after all. If you like Shadow of a Man (which he just released the video for) also check out Are You Free and No Faith In Brooklyn.

The Little Mix album DNA seems to have followed the One Direction album formula. It’s a collection of consistently good pop songs, which have a vaguely similar sound, but they just don’t fit together. They’ve got some of the world’s best producers and writers involved, but not one of them has contributed their best work, so it turns out to be a 7/10 album rather than the 10/10 it had potential to be. Here’s one track which doesn’t represent the album at all, but it instantly stood out to me, mainly ‘cos it reminded me of Telefunkin’ by N-Tyce! It’s very 90s, basically.