Holiday hiatus over. 2008 was a good year for us. We got up our grassroots operation up and running, put out one of the best bands we've ever heard and laid the foundation for a big year in 2009. The first half of '09 will see us releasing records from Marina & The Diamonds, Gotye and Theophilus London, and we'll continue to work with Giantess in a managerial capacity until they've signed a billion dollar record deal and we all become rich and famous. Enough about us though, other people are going to be fucking some serious shit up in 2009 as well. Our next few features will be highlighting some of the fresh new talent that'll be coming up through the ranks next year to make some serious noise on the charts.While Passion Pit and Marina are pretty much no brainers for big league triumphs next year, there's no safer bet for supernova success than Clare Maguire. Recent years have seen like-minded, big-voiced starlets like Winehouse, Adele, Duffy et. al ascending the charts with fluid ease, establishing their kind as the prototype for guaranteed chart success. Thus, Maguire, who's bros with Marina Diamond and produced by Primary 1, seems like the safest bet for surefire mainstream dominance in '09. A lengthy A&R struggle saw Maguire on the receiving end of one of the biggest deals we've heard about in an age, and "Strangest Thing", her brilliant white label debut, is already getting play on Radio 1 and has the future looking blindingly bright for this one.
MP3: "Strangest Thing" (Demo) - Clare Maguire
And since you were wondering, below are our favorite songs of '08.
1. "Sleepyhead" - Passion PitThere's been no shortage of praise thrown at our debut release and we don't think it's a dick move giving the top two slots of this list to Neon Gold artists, rather it just shows how blessed we feel we are to be working with such incredible talents. "Sleepyhead" sounds like nothing else before it, a completely original musical thought that's straight up one of the best songs we've ever heard. Hands down our song of the year and we hope it's yours too.
2. "Obsessions" - Marina & The DiamondsThe demo of this was our most listened to song of the year until Passion Pit strolled onto our radar, and Liam Howe's production on the recently unveiled single version just makes it even more special. Available worldwide on Valentine's Day '09, this was one of the defining tracks of the year for us and we're honored to be able to release it to the masses in February.
3. "Daylight" - Matt & KimMatt & Kim followed up their impressive '07 debut with two shit-hot singles in 2008. The more recent of the two, "Daylight", goes down as one of the year's most infectious tracks and hints at huge things to come on the duo's upcoming sophomore album. Twinkling keys hook you from the start, before a monumental drumbeat drops in and the song takes flight on a catchy-as-fuck vocal structure and oscillating synths. Special.
4. "Hearts A Mess" - GotyeOne of our favorite records of all time since it's initial release in 2006, Gotye's cinematic masterwork finally saw release beyond Australian borders courtesy of Lucky Number Music last spring. We're thrilled to announce our upcoming collaboration with the Australian maestro, which will come to fruition when we issue Gotye's first-ever US release this spring. Yeah, we're pretty excited.
5. "Get Over It" - GuillemotsGuillemots' "Trains To Brazil" was the best thing to happen to music in 2006 and they came damn close to topping it with "Get Over It". In the weeks leading up to its unveiling buzz around the industry was that Guillemots' had written the perfect pop song, and fuck if this isn't one of the most inspiring, euphoric tracks we've ever had the pleasure of listening to.
Concise, yet effective - these were the songs that really mattered in 2008. Let's see if '09 can do any better, shall we?
// I Need Chemical //