British sweetheart Florrie (Florence Arnold), is truly indie. Those who know of her work can only give priase, and those who have just discovered her will be overjoyed. She has yet to give in to the labels chasing at her heels, trying to get a piece of the girl who could very well be the next face of pop. But will she be able to do it alone, without commercial support and widespread, international radio attention?
In North America, unsigned musicians have a hard time reaching listeners beyond a 300 mile radius of their home base. It sounds like a great distance, but that's less than Toronto to Ottawa, one-way. Florrie's going at it without the help of any labels, big or small. (She's been featured once on one of those incredibly rad Kitsuné mixtapes.) If Florrie is able to break mainstream America in the same contagious manner she's infiltrated the online indie and electronic communities in two years (through social networking, blogs, and web magazines), she'll be proof of the inevitable direction modern pop music is headed.
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| Florence Arnold as the face of Nina Ricci's L'Elixir, 2010 |
There's nothing majorly distinctive about these four new tracks, but familiarity, simplicity, and a good beat is what electronic music needs right now. It sells, for sure, a terrifying fact for the hipster movement upon which the online music community is based. Major labels recognize Florrie's marketability- a fresh face, talent, and the right attitude. And the extraordinary part of it all is that she's not avant-garde about it. Her records would fit on the airwaves, MTV could play "Begging Me" somewhere between Rihanna and Pitbull, no big deal.
Remember, everything in moderation. Too much conceptual stuff is disorienting. Too much bad songwriting is aggravating. But Florrie's got a Gaga-esque appeal, minus the excessive publicity and fashion mishaps. She'll get you on the dance floor, even if electropop isn't your style. From the sounds of it, Late will follow in the threads of her previous two records, Introduction and Experiments- it's catchy, upbeat, well-produced, and soundly delivered.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE: florrie.com.