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Top 10+ Pop, Fall 2012

Top 10+ Pop Albums, Fall 2012

by Rachel Devitt

Happy October, pop fans! Don't you just love this time of year? The leaves are turning, the pumpkin beer is flowing and the Halloween party invites are encouraging you to come up with your best take on a "binder full of women" costume. (Group costume!) And oh yeah: Pop stars are churning out thoughtful, creative, infectious new albums.

Yes, forget about the fluff and light stuff of summer. In the fall, pop stars get serious, putting out material that challenges themselves, and challenges the listener to find new contexts in which to love it: Miguel's gorgeous, smart, sexy second effort, for instance, is perfect for impressing (and maybe seducing) a first date. And Ellie Goulding, she of the glittering sleeper smash "Lights," takes off in weird, wonderful new directions perfect for those wild and windy October nights when all you want to do is invite a couple good friends over, drink red wine, carve pumpkins and have deep, meaningful conversations.

But hey, maybe you just want to dance! There are plenty of perfect soundtracks for that here, too, albeit from some fairly unlikely sources, like No Doubt, hip-hopper K'naan, Brit brat Cher Lloyd and R&B star Brandy, who just dropped a career high. We've got so much great stuff to share with you this month, in fact, that we couldn't quite fit it all into a Top 10. So you get a Top 11! Yay!

One big new album you won't find here is Taylor Swift's Red. Unfortunately, her label decided not to make it available to any subscription streaming services until at least January. We would love to share it with you guys, but it's the label's call, not ours. For more on that situation, check out this handy-dandy breakdown from Rhapsody editorial boss Garrett Kamps.

Kaleidoscope Dream

Miguel

Miguel's second album is drenched in his honeyed, echoing voice. Its airy lightness fuses the synthesized boogie of underground artists like Dam-Funk to the lovelorn sex rooms of R&B. A relentless seducer, Miguel implores the listener to "Use Me"; "I can teach you," he promises seductively. "Adorn" and "Do You..." sound terrific, especially when contrasted with his debut, All I Want Is You, which had a brighter, if equally sex-obsessed, tone. Although he can't quite divorce himself from mainstream R&B's focus on baby-making ballads, Kaleidoscope Dream is still an impressive evolution.

The Origin Of Love

Mika

From his guests (Pharrell!) to his album cover, Mika makes it clear he wants The Origin of Love to head in a different direction from his usual technicolor '70s dream. And it does, but cautiously. Everything here feels a bit subdued for the boy in cartoon motion: "Overrated"'s cheeky club beats come off muted, zippily titled songs fall a bit flat, and even a bizarre Broadway quote is relatively mainstream (the Wicked-riffing "Popular Song"). It's all innocuously pleasant, but here and there Origin shows real, fresh promise, like on the off-kilter sway of "Make You Happy."

Paradise

Cody Simpson

We're not going to mention that other cherub-cheeked, adolescent YouTube sensation in this review. After all, Cody Simpson's got his own sweetie-pie soulful pop show going on, in which he's cast as a wholesome Aussie surfer dude. So the title track is, naturally, an exercise in easygoing beachiness and summer breeze similes on which Simpson literally whistles while he works, while "Tears on Your Pillow" works a light dub groove. Our beach baby, meanwhile, charms the ladies with an approach that tempers vintage chivalry (the mother candy "Gentleman") with a pinch of cockiness ("Got Me Good").

Two Eleven

Brandy

Brandy's comeback after years of tabloid hell has some of the best beats of her career. With help from producers like Major Lazer's Switch ("Slower") and Bangladesh ("So Sick" and the Chris Brown-assisted "Put It Down"), she makes songs that evoke both futurist neo-wave and classic girl-group R&B, while weaving an effortless vocal performance around her smooth, bird-like trills. Two Eleven's weak spots are its lyrics, which range from the clumsy chorus of "Do You Know What You Have" to the overwrought theme "Scared of Beautiful." But with music this fantastic, you'll hardly notice.

Halcyon

Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding is lucky her debut was a sleeper. Because her second album sounds like it was created by a woman immersed in creativity, not consumed with chart position or reiterating the airy pop of Lights. Halcyon is complicated and challenging, its pensive angel choirs and complex beats (often honed from her vocals) are fascinating if almost alienating. Then you get to "Figure 8," a symphony of ebbing, flowing beats; rippling vocal riffs; and swollen drama that drowns any doubts, heralding a second half in which Goulding finds her groove as pop provocateur.

Kanye West Presents Good Music Cruel Summer

Kanye West

Not even Kanye West is immune to the rap comp jinx. Despite great singles such as "Mercy" and "New God Flow," Cruel Summer isn't as vacuously fun as, say, Rick Ross and MMG's Self Made. He clearly wants to do more than just talk sh*t with G.O.O.D. Music folks like Pusha T and Big Sean, but his pop-operatic pretensions about fame and fortune result in overwrought songs like "Sin City" and "Creepers." Meanwhile, his inclusion of a decent remix for Chicago rapper Chief Keef's regional hit "Don't Like" is bad timing in light of the Windy City's tragic gang violence epidemic.

Push And Shove

No Doubt

How does ska-punk translate in 2012? Don't ask No Doubt; their first album in more than a decade (and sixth overall) is more attuned to the dancefloor than any mosh pit. The O.C. quartet has transformed their loose, punky grooves into crisp club cuts for Push and Shove, so aside from the remnants of reggae and hints of brass on standouts like "Settle Down," "Sparkle" and the Major Lazer-assisted title cut, it's mostly '80s-powered synths rippling through mid-tempo Madonna-esque dance tracks ("Looking Hot," "Gravity," "Heaven"). And if you're wondering, Gwen Stefani is still one badass chick.

Sticks & Stones

Cher Lloyd

Mourn no more, Lily Allen fans, because the universe has seen fit to bestow upon us another cheeky, chirpy Brit with a fluttery vibrato and a thing for double-edged snark couched in sing-songy pop. Only this one also raps like Nicki Minaj (or at least Karmin) and identifies with Neneh Cherry. And that, friends, is a very winning, very sassy combination, especially when Lloyd keeps things light and salty as popcorn, like on "Grow Up" (those girl-group castanets!) and the Cherry-biting "Playa Boi." The romantic songs get weighed down in sentiment, but mostly, Sticks is cute, clever fun.

Country, God Or The Girl

K'naan

K'naan's fourth album isn't as political as his earlier work. Once a critic of Western imperialism, here he only offers "Bulletproof Pride," where he and U2's Bono lament child soldiers in his native Africa. Instead, the Somalian-Canadian rapper focuses on breezy topics like personal ambition and love, and his childhood as a street urchin in a fun chop session with Nas on "Nothing to Lose." By puffing up songs like "Better" and "Simple" with soaring melodies, he turns Country into feel-good arena pop-rap. Listen for Keith Richards, of all people, cranking out a solo on "Sleep When We Die."

Bodyparts

Dragonette

Sassier than Gaga, more indie than Scissor Sisters, Dragonette have always been the electro-pop diva for the uber-hipster pop fan. But perhaps inspired by their charting turn on Martin Solveig's "Hello," the Canadian cool kids seem to be targeting every kind of pop fan. Bodyparts still has its dark corners and campy edges: Just see the fierce catwalk strut of "Right Woman" or the creative party anthem "My Legs." And the whole thing is somewhat obsessed with disco and synth-pop dramatic enough to star in a John Hughes movie. And yet, there's an easy accessibility to the whole thing.