The Funeral Suits - Screentest

One of the most exciting Irish bands of the past few years, the Funeral Suits veer easily from cheery indiepop (like this track) to much harder and darker sounds, but there are two consistents throughout every style they put on: (1) gorgeous vocals (new singer/guitarist/etc Brian James in particular has a voice that could make your granny swoon, even if he does have a tendency to go out on stage looking like the Grim Reaper) and (2) impeccable songwriting skills, which mean that even when they are pushing the limits of anything you could call "pop", their songs are still just so unbelievably catchy. Sort of like a modern-day Irish Pixies, I guess, but with better (male) vocals.

Here's a live clip with their old line-up, capturing their lighter indiepop side well. I highly, highly, highly recommend you visit their Myspace page to hear more.

The Scientists - That Girl

On the exceptionally rare occasion I see anything written about the Scientists, they're usually described as post-punk but their debut album (self-titled but always referred to as The Pink Album, for obvious reasons if you look down the page a bit) is mostly classic pop-punk or power-pop in the Buzzcocks/Rezillos kind of mode. Few people outside of Australia seem to remember them, which is a shame.

This is the most straightahead pop song on the debut. It's not entirely representative of the rest of the album, far less their later material. But isn't it cute?

Tuxedomoon - What Use

Here's something a little different. I'm not a big fan of the "experimental" strain of post-punk, but there's just enough tune in this early track from San Francisco's Tuxedomoon to earn the Cinnamon stamp of approval.

If you like this sort of thing, the album it's from, 1980's Half-Mute on Ralph Records, seems to be widely considered a classic of the genre. But as I said, not generally my cup of tea (this song and one or two others aside).

The Wendy Darlings - Enormous Pop

The Wendy Darlings are a French band with a brilliant name (that's always a bonus) and, in this, a definite contender for 2009's Song of the Year. It's utterly classic-sounding tweeindiegirlpop in the mode of all the greats like Talulah Gosh, the Shop Assistants and fill-in-your-own-favourites-here.

The song is from their EP We Come With Friendly Purposes, the rest of which isn't quite as strong as this track but has as much promise as any other debut I've heard recently.

No idea who made the video or what it's all about, BTW.

David Kilgour - Slippery Slide

Here's something a little more recent from the Flying Nun family tree. David Kilgour was, of course, the genius behind the Clean, and his half-dozen or so solo albums are also well worth picking up. They don't really sound that much like the Clean; the songs are a bit more somber and, well, "mature" is probably the word most reviewers would use. But his innate pop sensibility still shines through everything he does, and with such exquisite songwriting skills, some of his solo material has been truly breathtaking.

This is from 2002's A Feather in the Engine. A really, really nice song in and of itself...but just listen to that arrangement.

The Psychedelic Furs - Sister Europe

I was discussing the Furs with a friend of mine recently, a diehard fan of theirs, and it prompted me to go back and listen to some of their earlier material which I hadn't really been hugely into before. And you know what? I'm still not really into it, or at least their first album. Too ramshackle, too unfocused, too hard to discern any real melodies under the noise. And while I'm not particularly pro or anti Richard Butler's voice, it's pretty grating on most of the debut.

This is, however, a lovely song - and a good indication of the (vastly superior) direction they would be taking in the future.

Duels - The Slow Build

This is a gorgeous track, and one of the songs I play to people when they complain about indie music not being any good any more. As you will see, that's utter nonsense.

I could listen to this song for hours.