#smart pop

[robkost]

Annie Get Your Gun

Squeeze

[alittlemorevodka]

If ever there was a contextual relationship between “smart” and “pop”, Sweden’s Ivy Flindt has it, and it is exceptional! Vocally light and lilting, the phrasing used by lead vocal Cate Martin is by no means cookie-cutter pop. Here on Young And Pretty from the duo’s long-player, In Every Move (August 2018), you get a taste of all that. 

A collaboration of two creators, Ivy Flindt combines the aforementioned Cate Martin and Micha Holland, painting pictures with the music they create, which as it turns out is in keeping with their larger goals and ambitions; composing, photographing and painting an inspiring attitude that reflects life. So Ivy Flindt isn’t so much a musical duo, but a creating force of two committed individuals. 

Nevertheless, musically, Ivy Flindt demands attention. There are tons of textural and aural experiences painted within the eleven tracks contained in In Every Move. Recently (April 2019) a single bundle was released for When You’re Not Around taken from the long-player. These eleven tracks are wrapped in an instrumentally minimalist approach, which tends to highlight the lyric and the delivery. For the most part, In Every Move is not for casual listening, it is meant to be experienced from the first words to the last refrain.

You can find more information on Ivy Flindt by heading up to their web site or purchase their music from their bandcamp.com site. 

If you are looking for smart pop music from a duo where music is only part of their ambition, take a listen to Ivy Flindt now and pick up their music!

[katybudgetbooks]

Review of Family Don’t End with Blood, edited by Lynn Zubernis

Told from the perspectives of both cast and fans, this is a powerful and heartfelt look into the support and sense of community that can come from participation in fandom.

-Bookseller Stacey

[diamonddeposits]

Synth driven RnB from Dublin based duo Ex Grace (Sharon Gaynor and Eoin Grace) who beguile us with the their title track Human In Unison, a powerfully potent slice of funk-rock with confident vocals from their recently released LP that you can stream via their Soundcloud! Check it out above.

[qzen]

[thesmartpop]

[annejamison]

My publisher, Smart Pop Books, is making chapters of FIC available on Wattpad. So this week, you can check out Lev Grossman's foreword and my intro "Why Fic?" with more to come over the next few weeks.