Lykke Li

Lykke Li hit mainstream with her single I Follow Rivers, but few know that this song comes from the second album of an interesting artist.

Her first album, called Youth Novels, was released in 2008 and presents a bunch of styles. The songs on this album reveal two constants: a preference for unusual intros and Lykke Li's beautiful voice. Dance, dance, dance reminds me of Nouvelle Vague, Little Bit of Martina Topley Bird's style and the voice from the beginning of I'm Good I'm Gone sounds like some industrial or new wave stuff (just to name a few similarities).

Note: Time Flies (Youth Novels album) is not a cover song from Vaya Con Dios(that's what my first thought was when I saw the title).





I've noticed that she has a choice for peculiar videos. Do you recognize the song she's playing a cappella in the beginning of the following video?



A couple of her videos including I Follow Rivers were directed by Tarik Saleh. His name didn't ring any bells but when I googled him I remembered that I saw one of his movies - Metropia (you should check it out).

Both albums are good and should make at least an interesting listening if her style doesn't appeal to you.
There are lots of songs from her on Youtube, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that both her albums were uploaded there.

Velure

Velure's songs really are made from velure. Similar in style to Portishead's Dummy album, they bring a more smooth approach to the genre. Although they certainly have influences from other trip-hop bands, they bring their own style. Lynnelle Moran's voice is excellent for this band, they make the band stand apart from Beth Gibbons' hauntingly beautiful vocals (or other "similar" vocalist for that matter).

The band has released only an EP so far - Care For Fading Embers - excellent work, I recommend listening to the whole album. My favorite track is Do you suppose?, unfortunately I couldn't find it on Youtube.







Here's the whole Youtube playlist for Velure.