We’re rarely serious here at One on One HQ.
In fact, as a general rule, we usually try our very best not to be serious. But, at times, a certain degree of sternness is warranted: and, when better to turn on your inner military commander than when you’re talking about the most serious subject of all?
We’re talking, of course, about quality pop music. Now, we don’t mean to alarm you, but Quality Pop Music – or, Q.P.M. – has been in something of a decline in recent years. Ever since the golden age of Mses. Jepsen, Robyn, and Perry in 2012-14, reports of Q.P.M. have dwindled to levels last seen during The Great Nu-Rave Crisis Of 2008.
There is, however, no need to be alarmed.
You see, we’re only two-and-a-bit weeks into 2020, but we’re already going to go on record and say that we are currently in the midst of what One on One shall henceforth term ‘The Great Q.P.M. Renaissance’.
Let’s think about it. In one corner, you’ve got Gracey, who’s been churning out jaw-dropping power ballads at a frankly alarming rate since she first came belting onto our radar at the tail end of last year. In the other, you’ve got Sam Smith, whose decision to step away from being The Male Adele and instead focus on being a no-fucks-given Proper Pop Star is one that we welcome with open arms.
Oh, and you’ve even got Charli XCX teaming up with Galantis for a track that was released as part of a Super Nintendo World trailer. We are, truly, living in spectacular times.
Out of all of these Purveyors Of Quality Pop Music, though, there is one woman who stands out.
We’re talking, of course, about Georgia. She’s the one-woman dance-pop powerhouse behind such pieces of Q.P.M. as Started Out, Never Let You Go, and About Work The Dancefloor, and we’ve been a bit obsessed with her for about a year now.
That’s why, when we found out she was heading to Rough Trade in Bristol for a live set to promote her debut album, Seeking Thrills, we couldn’t resist heading down with our Notes app to see what magic we could capture for both of you, the readers of One on One.
You’re curious, aren’t you? We know you are.
Well, here’s what we found out:
1) Her live set-up resembles an actual TARDIS.
There are drum pads, analog synthesisers, crash cymbals, microphones, and something that makes a very satisfying ‘THWACK’ sound whenever Georgia hits it hard. Which she does. Often.
2) Her debut album is packed full of more quirky bangers than a dodgy butcher’s window.
Anybody can write a banger, really. All it takes is one catchy chorus and then you just throw every synth sound under the sun at it until it sounds like something Max Martin might’ve conjured up. To write a banger that sounds like it shouldn’t be a banger, though, is really rather hard.
That’s why we’re so impressed that Georgia has not just managed to fit one or two Quirky Bangers onto her ‘debut full-length’ – she’s managed to squeeze five or six of them onto it. (Case in point: there’s a song about vodka jello. And it slaps.)
3) But her Robyn-esque anti-capitalist pop banger is still her best song.
It’s called About Work The Dancefloor and it’s a bop.
4) She might – just might – end up being one of the most interesting pop stars of 2020.
We’re not saying that pop music needs saving – we’re just saying that if anybody’s going to save it, it’s probably going to be Georgia.
Sure, she might not be a ‘pop star’ in the #2020 sense of the word. She’s not been autotuned to perfection, and every photo you see of her hasn’t been Photoshopped to within an inch of its life. Instead, she appears to have gone down the route of working Very Bloody Hard to become Very Bloody Good at this whole ‘writing pop songs’ malarkey.
She has then worked equally hard to figure out how to take these pieces of Quality Pop Music and make them sound absolutely massive when she stands behind her TARDIS and plays them in front of a living, breathing, and farting audience.
Call us old fashioned, but that’s what we call a proper pop star.