10. Gigi - Miantenant (Tomlab)

Another fantastic pop album appearing seemingly out of nowhere, Gigi is the work of No Kids member and songwriter Nick Krgovich and fellow Vancouver-ite Colin Stewart, an allstar (well allstar in an indiepop kind of way) cast joins for guest vocals and suceed masterfully, despite the many voices, this still stands up as an album in its own right, rather than sounding like a compilation.

The tracks featuring Chorus stand out, sounding like a 60's girl group, full of feel good multi vocal harmonies, footstomps and handclaps. Zac Pennington of Parenthetical Girls does a lovely job of a boy feeling all to sorry for himself on the lavish Dreams of Romance. Rose Melberg sounds amazing as ever on another highlight, again wrapped up like a sixties hit never made. On One Woman Show Jooey Cook of the Pomegranetes sounds slightly out of tune and untrained in the brilliant and loving kind of way that Kimya Dawson does, a fantastic track with a great Aisler's Set-esque chorus.

This is just the tip of the iceburg, i've not even mentioned guest appearances by Owen Pallet, Dear Nora, Karl Blau and Mirah. A triumph in the art of perfect pop and the ability to recreate that sixties sound.

Find more artists like Gigi at Myspace Music

Find more artists like Gigi at Myspace Music

Spoiler : What Boomkat Said:

Gigi is the handiwork of No Kids member and songwriter Nick Krgovich and fellow Vancouver-ite Colin Stewart, a producer and engineer who has previously worked on albums by Black Mountain, Destroyer and Cave Singers. When Canadians start singing songs with titles like 'No, My Heart Will Go On', it's usually time to duck for cover, but this opening piece actually recalls the traditionalist '60s American pop revisions of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward's She & Him output - a far more palatable spewing of sentimentality than the ship-sinking ballad it threatened to be. Not dissimiarly, some of the tracks on Maintenant bring to mind Stuart Murdoch's God Help The Girl project, channelling '60s girl group sounds on 'I'm Not Coming Out Tonight' (featuring Sydney Vermont and Marissa Johnson) and 'Alone At The Pier' (with Rose Melberg). There's a wealth of outside personnel brought in for this album, with the biggest names including Owen Pallett (the artist formerly known as Final Fantasy), Zac Pennington (of Parenthetical Girls) and Mirah (the K Records solo artist and affiliate of Mount Eerie/The Microphones' Phil Elverum). Pallett's 'I'll Quit' exemplifies the sort of elegant big-band dynamics Maintenant can achieve, calling upon widescreen, loungey brass and luscious female backing vocals.

Give me a Song for a Snowy Sunday

Just five minutes back snow was showering itself down like dusting on a cake, nonchalantly falling like everything was normal and we weren't slowly working our way into the month of April...now there's glorious sunshine...I sometimes forget just how great Belle & Sebastian are, even though the blogs very bame is stolen from one of their songs..from time to time i'll revisit, latey i've been trying the newer stuff, swallowing my pride as an old school fan and just ennjoying the fact that as far as "chart music" goes, Belle and Sebastian are indeed a breath of fresh air. Today though I'm feeling sinister and Fox in the Snow seems like the right song to be listening to on repeat, i smile to the line, the best looking boys are taken, the best looking boys are staying in bed in the gloriously simple and instantly loveable Judy and Her Dream of Horses.

Belle & Sebastian - Judy and the Dream of Horses Mp3

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How can you not love Kimya Dawson, so imperfect yet twice as perfect for it, a hero for those who "can't sing" who aren't afraid of being different yet are secretly paranoid about what other people think. I Like Giants is a lovely song..."all girls feel too big sometimesRegardless of their size"