Artists Capable Of Defining The Next Decade

FEATURE: Those Among Us Who Can Grow In 2010-2019
words: Jamie Milton

Renata Raksha

Many of the stars of tomorrow or the next day haven’t shown their faces yet. They’ll pop up in an SXSW or national talent show or out of the purse of a record label executive. But some of the biggest names are already staring us in the face. Some have released one, two albums and will continue to grow in spectacular fashion.

Below are just a small handful of artists who are without doubt capable of evolving like Radiohead did, like Spoon did, like Sigur Ros did in the last ten years. Existing bands who will still very much exist in ten years time.

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Frightened Rabbit

In Frightened Rabbit you get the eschewed, twisted take on delivering heart-rendering love songs from the pit of the heart. Their brand of stadium-approved Scottish rock is probably something that most of the band’s fans don’t want to explode into the mainstream. But it’s more than capable of doing so. With a new album due next year, expert songwriting might eventually find a home on mainstream radio and as easily as that, it could erupt into new beginnings.

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HEALTH

The consensus about HEALTH is that they’re already far ahead of their time. The music they make; hard-hitting slabs of perfectly-crafted noise rock, will never win millions of fans. But critical acclaim towards the band will go overboard if the follow-up to this year’s ‘Get Color‘ is more spectacular, intricate and jaw-dropping that its already impressive predecessors. Expect to hear the sound of the future develop nicely over the next few years.
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Laura Marling

The only solo artist that we’re mentioning. And that’s for a reason because most successful solo artists cannot forge a lengthy career of success – the likes of Lily Allen, James Blunt, Jack Johnson can all vouch for that. But Marling has something of a PJ Harvey aura about her, someone capable of developing that dark yet relatively simplistic acoustic sound of hers. We’re not asking Laura Marling to go rock n’roll but let’s face it, one word heavily featured around press of her debut album was “potential” and as she enters a new decade with a new album in tow, it wouldn’t be fair not to expect anything but excellence.
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Wild Beasts

It seems quite strange that when ‘Two Dancers‘ was released and when nearly everybody fell head over heels in love with it, that there was talk that this band had an ‘OK Computer’ in them. This is odd considering Wild Beasts sound more like a lot of bands than Radiohead but where they’re coming from is the idea that this is a band who so crucially developed from their debut to their sophomore record and when a band are as driven and determined to out-do themselves as Wild Beasts are, you can only assume there’s more to come.
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The XX

The new faces in our choices, the XX are already crafting an original, mature sound in their (sort of) self-titled debut. Their live performances are appreciated and brains behind the sound Jamie XX is making waves in the blog community with his exceptional remixes. The best thing about the debut was that it in no way pigeonholed the band’s sound: there was a dabbling into straightforward pop, into dubstep, into hip-hop. The doors are still open and the band could go nearly anywhere from this fantastic starting point. No pressure.
mp3: Basic Space (Pariah Remix)
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Yeasayer

‘Ambling Alp‘ having just arrived, Yeasayer effectively announcing a more direct route into cultured pop from their ambitious debut ‘All Hour Cymbals’. ‘Odd Blood’ is the forthcoming release, due out next February and a level of expectation akin to that which surrounded the latest Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear albums, is beginning to build. Trust me though, it’s for a reason. Yeasayer have been showcasing intelligent yet instant pop music through their new songs in shows recently and you get the sense that they won’t be finishing at ‘Odd Blood’.
mp3: Ambling Alp

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