Many a band has broken through in 2008, but are these successes primarily down to creative flair and artistic excellence, or a focused PR campaign and enviable advertising budget?
ClashMusic.com looks at ten names that have been on the rise this year, and decides whether their elevated profile is down to Nature or Nurture.
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MGMT (pictured)
The Brooklyn duo’s ascent hasn’t stuttered yet, although a series of so-so live performances (including their set at Glastonbury) have rather dampened the considerable impression made by their colourful debut album, ‘Oracular Spectacular’. With one-of-two Andrew VanWyngarden recently making a top-end appearance in the annual NME ‘Cool List’, it seems likely the pair’s success will continue into 2009. But, hyperbole from the magazine stands isn’t wholly responsible for their headway over the past months: their album is excellent, a pop-savvy trip through realms psychedelic and proggy, with nods to Yeasayer and of Montreal along the way. Their songs stand up to scrutiny, which leaves us to conclude that they’re (mostly) masters of their own advancement.
NATURE 80% / 20% NURTURE
GLASVEGAS
Morose Scots come good: it’s a recurring theme in domestic rock music, rarely expanded onto the world stage, but Glasvegas could yet break free of their Glasgow ghetto, as their self-titled album continues to attract plaudits. But how sincere is their emoting? Together since 2001, the band has been through various stylistic mutations, arriving at their all-in-black Mary Chain-echoing ways after dalliances with rather less enveloping dynamics. The look is simple, clean, cool; the music booming, tender, perplexing in its contradictions. Alan McGee’s support has proven invaluable in their progress, but with a second LP already nearing completion, it appears that Glasvegas are more than hype and hot air.
NATURE 70% / 30% NURTURE
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ADELE
Big of voice and… yeah, yeah, she’s no looker, but for once an artist’s appearance has mattered not one jot as Adele’s ‘19’ album took the charts on both sides of the Atlantic by storm this year. Sure, ‘Chasing Pavements’ was nonsense, and the ‘Critics Choice’ BRIT Award a little much too early, but the London-based singer earned a Mercury nod and was responsible for one of the most moving tracks of the year, ‘Hometown Glory’. As informed by Etta James and Dusty Springfield as she is a fan of girl-band pop, Adele’s palette was varied enough to deliver a diverse debut; what it lacked in coherency, ‘19’ made up for in potential. As a BRIT School graduate, though, she’s experienced criticism – artists trained in such a way are rarely regarded as the genuine article. But it’s too soon to truly determine whether her raw talent will see her through once the hype dies down for good. Jury, out.
NATURE 50% / 50% NURTURE
LAURA MARLING
Another Mercury Prize nominee, and female singer of tender years, Marling has attracted perhaps even more attention in the past three or four months than Adele and (the soon to be focused upon) Duffy. She writes her own material, has ties with other groups of great acclaim – Noah and the Whale, Mumford & Sons, Mystery Jets – and can melt hearts from stages of any size. This writer saw her on a tiny stage before a handful of punters and on the main stage at both Field Day and Green Man this year – wherever she plays, she impresses, and all the more so because of her openly admitted hesitance of actually performing live. She’s getting over her nerves, for sure, and if a follow-up to ‘Alas, I Cannot Swim’ is as revered as her debut, expect Marling’s star to shine for years to come.
NATURE 90% / 10% NURTURE
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THE TING TINGS
Like Glasvegas, The Ting Tings have been around longer than some will realise – Jules De Martino has been in bands of limited success since the 1990s, and Katie White was previously in a ‘non-professional’ girl-band. The pair formed The Ting Tings in 2004, and released ‘That’s Not My Name’/‘Great DJ’ via Switchflicker last year ahead of their signing to Columbia. Both tracks became hits via the major label, and their ballad-like ‘Be The One’ showcased another side to the band’s material. But much of debut album ‘We Started Nothing’ (number one in the UK) amounted to little more than filler, padding to surround the obvious stand-outs. While this is no crime – many debuts lack cohesion and consistency – the longevity of The Ting Tings’ instant-fix offerings is questionable, and they’ve undoubtedly enjoyed beyond-decent label and PR support throughout the year. Even their most-frothy-mouthed fans won’t be able to overlook their shortcomings forever.
NATURE 40% / 60% NURTURE
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FOALS
The Oxford math-rockers – sorry, are they not math-rock after all? – saw their ‘Antidotes’ album reach number three on the album chart upon its release, and their hard-touring ways have seen the five-piece become one of the nation’s best live bands. The BBC tipped them heavily at the start of 2008, and the band’s not looked back since. Yet supporters in some sections of the press have, oddly, turned against the band; one-time fans have withdrawn their reverence. Not Clash – ‘Antidotes’ contains a number of cracking tracks, and the band’s insistence on progressing their sound marks them out as an act to watch well beyond the end of this year. Will they go calypso on the next album? Techno? Prog? Who knows… All we’re sure of is that it’ll be a lot of fun travelling wherever they take us. Frontman Yannis Philippakis might occasionally shoot his mouth off in ill-advised directions, but hell: the man’s got opinions, and wants them heard. Which makes him no different from you or I, really.
NATURE 90% / 10% NURTURE
FLEET FOXES
Purveyors of so-called ‘baroque harmonic pop jams’, Seattle’s Fleet Foxes have been an unexpected success story of 2008, with their debut self-titled album garnering great acclaim from all corners and live shows selling out in moments. Precedents were set prior to their take-off – Band of Horses and Bon Iver laid the foundations for Fleet Foxes’ success, arguably – but few could have predicted that the five-piece would be so brilliantly received. Purple prose in the press has largely been justified, backed by superlative material, and the band’s backers in the PR world have had an easy job – the songs sell themselves. Calling the album “a landmark in American music” (The Guardian) might be a bit OTT… but who can argue with such gorgeousness, honestly? A band who could become giants in their field.
NATURE 95% / 5% NURTURE
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LATE OF THE PIER
Another band whose rise in 2008 wasn’t entirely expected, Castle Donington four-piece Late Of The Pier took a whole skipload of hugely diverse influences into the studio to create ‘Fantasy Black Channel’, their much-lauded debut. Much of it shouldn’t work – the nods to Numan, the weird Pink Floyd moments, the freak-out passages comparable to Liars, all of ‘Bathroom Gurgle’ – but as a whole it certainly does. While some of the mainstream music magazines were slow to pick up on the band, as the year approaches its end it’s clear many critics are looking to LotP’s record as one of the best British efforts of 2008. Yeah, they’ve had their periods of hype – like Glasvegas, they’re a breakthrough band that’ve graced the cover of NME – but any singing of their praises is entirely justified. Excitement is already building for what these youthful mavericks may make next time around.
NATURE 80% / 20% NURTURE
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SANTOGOLD
She was meant to be pop’s new princess in 2008, but as her album didn’t quite set the chart alight (peaking at 26) goals were not quite reached. Nevertheless, 2008’s been a fantastic year for Philly’s Santi White – her music’s been everywhere, across television and radio, and on advertisements selling hair products and booze. She’s written for other artists, including Lily Allen and Ashlee Simpson, but there’s no doubt White kept her best material for herself – ‘Creator’ and ‘L.E.S. Artistes’ are solid-gold hits. Alas, little else on ‘Santogold’ was as good as these heads-up singles, and it split opinion considerably. Where will it rank in Clash’s end-of-year list? You’ll have to wait and see. For now, we’re of the opinion that she’s got ability enough to sustain a career once the so-hot-right-now shtick finally cools.
NATURE 55% / 45% NURTURE
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DUFFY
And so to perhaps the most controversial success of the year, a former Clash cover star and beneficiary of Bernard Butler’s production talents. Her debut album, ‘Rockferry’, entered at number one on the domestic album chart, and she achieved a number one single in February with ‘Mercy’. But… Duffy’s highly-polished retro-stylings and gob-dropping admission that she barely listened to music ‘til well into her teens, as well as an appearance on Welsh channel S4C’s ‘Wawffactor’ in 2003 (the country’s take on ‘Pop Idol’), have brought her credibility into question. Do we take her seriously, as an artist in control of her destiny, or treat her as another pop puppet? MOJO awarded her their Song of the Year gong, at their annual awards, for ‘Mercy’, yet some see her as a plastic take on soul – the sound’s there, but the feeling not. Confusing, isn’t she? With so much clout behind her, we have to conclude that Duffy is currently a pawn in a game controlled by characters around her; for now, her success has been down to others with their own fortunes to pursue rather than purely natural talent.
NATURE 30% / 70% NURTURE
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