owl cityOwl City is a one man electro band, conjured up on sleepless nights by Adam Young in his parents’ basement. It includes a chart topping single (Fireflies) and a viral hit (Hello Seattle) and launched a successful world tour on the back of debut effort, Ocean Eyes. Maybe the next time you can’t sleep you should make an album instead of a midnight snack, clearly it pays dividends.

britneyOh man, Britney Spears’ singles are sooooo bangin’. I wish someone would have the foresight to compile them on a single disc that the library would buy and put in it’s YA collection so the hit parade could just keep on rollin’ from 1999 all the way to 2009. Oh wait, it looks as though The singles collection completely fits that bill. Well then.

Pixie Lott is a rising, young R&B/Pop star who gained label attention from the songs posted on her myspace, ala Lily Allen, which is a good example as she is not too disimilar in style. Turn It Up is an enthusiastic, infectious first effort that has all the teen pop fans talking.

vampire weekendVampire Weekend were already indie-famous on the strength of their first album, but now that Twilight fever has truly gripped the globe, they could be set for proper-famous given that they’ve aligned their personal brand so closely with the now ubiquitous, undead coffin-dwellers. If they were called RPattz Weekend they could be bigger than U2. Based on my sound (?) reasoning Contra should be massive, the sunshiney indie-pop songs within help though.

The Temper Trap are a Melbourne band with grand ambition. The songs on Conditions, their debut, are almost all big ballady melodramas designed for stadiums. If Muse, Coldplay, Keane, Snow Patrol and the like are the sorts of cats in your bag, pop these young upstarts in beside them. Ok?

And lastly, Katy Perry’s MTV Unplugged is here. It includes live, acoustic performances of seven of songs on the CD, on the DVD are the same seven songs, but with added visuals and an interview. A reminder to all of us who’ve forgotten that the “M” in MTV stands for music.