Oh gross - I was putting together a big Regina Spektor post and it got deleted. Whatever, I'll do it again, this time more concise. Before that, however, let me share a discovery with you nice folks. Here's someone I randomly stumbled upon (in fact, I thought I knew her name from this thread, but I just checked and that's not true, so who knows).
Kate Nash
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Nash
Her debut album hasn't even been released in North America yet, but she's been a hit in the UK and on myspace for a while. Very young (born in the same month as me, which I find strangely fascinating), Kate Nash has very quickly went from totally unknown myspace performer to having a #1 album and #2 single in the UK.
That single is "Foundations," which both
sounds cool when performed live and has a
well done video that made me lol twice. It was such a success that the album's release date was pushed forward more than a month.
Thanks to the magic of YouTube, I've listened to most of this album, titled
Made of Bricks. It has its moments, but Nash is still clearly a beginning artist. Half the time she sounds like Lily Allen, as in the clip above, and half the time she sounds like Regina Spektor (
see here, and please listen to the whole song if you listen at all). Both are interesting, but it's hard to see through to Nash's personality. I know that's kinda the point, but it's not completely satisfying.
I'm very surprised that she can pull off the things she does in some of those songs, though. Definitely some talent and intelligence there, and definitely someone I'll be paying attention to in the future.