99-CENT DJ MC music guy Scott Frampton's dead-of-winter playlist that promises to warm you up.
"Game Over," VV BROWN. Britney Spears, a Bond theme song, and Gene Kelly make up the Venn diagram of influential sounds for this pop fantasia. The British bombshell's soulful sass makes the "nah-na-nah" chorus irresistible.
"The Uncomfortable Truth" NNEKA. She's known as the Nigerian Erykah Badu. You'll know her for modern R&B laced with hip-hop, defiant lyrics, and a sexy, scratchy voice that alternates between a whisper and a scream.
"Heaven Can Wait," CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG AND BECK. Their adorably uneven, electro-folk duet dances around a jug-band rhythm like flower children around a maypole.
"Forever Me," THE WATSON TWINS. As sisters Chandra and Leigh's harmonies wrap around hissing cymbals and jazzy guitar, this languorous, closing-time cabaret song builds into a long, slow good-night kiss to melt all your late-winter blues.
"Madder Red," YEASAYER. With its Alpine yodeling and synths burbling like a mountain stream, this dreamy, catchy reincarnation of '80s New Romantics pop is as pleasantly unexpected as a patch of edelweiss growing in the cracked sidewalks of Brooklyn.
"A Lifeless Ordinary," MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK. I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you date me? As its lyrics make romance out of malaise, this song's fuzzy guitars, boyish vocals, and pop melody are so sweet, you just might decide to.
