Ida Maria
(Upper 11/Fontana)
It's going to be hard for anyone to get past Track 4 on the debut album by this extremely likable 24-year-old Norwegian singer. It's a sexy-funny blast of perfect pop called "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked." Catchy and propulsive as anything from the pogo-crazed days of early New Wave, it's winning because it's so damn cheeky yet not lurid or leering. It's actually sweet and vulnerable, completely unpretentious and uncalculated - the opposite of Katie Perry. Kids and their parents could find themselves both singing along when this comes on the car radio. (Are there still car radios?) Ida Maria's hyper-expressive, conversational talk-singing, coupled with the back-up chanting on the chorus, require this standout song to be played repeatedly.
If you ever do get past it, you'll find that the singer and her tight three-piece band have assimilated all sorts of rock influences very well, and perform them with a giddy rush. The propulsive opener, "Oh My God," has the drive of Chrissie Hynde's "Kid," and there's plenty of Suzi Quatro/Blondie power-pop fueled with Bjork-like spiky vocal swoops, shouts and quieter asides throughout the album's ten short songs. "Stella" is a moving, yearning song about "a 43-year-old hooker from downtown" in which Ida Maria's emotional voice flirts with rawness; the little laugh she incorporates into "Morning Light" is seductive.
Naked or not, you'll like pop music so much better in 2009 with Ida Maria around.
Standout Tracks: "Louie," "Oh My God" STEVEN ROSEN
[Ida Maria is interviewed in the debut print edition of BLURT, currently on newsstands everywhere. The title of the feature? "Naked Ambition," natch.]
