The evolution of the female solo artist over the past fifteen years has been a curious one. My generation grew up on solid, strong voices with apparent themes and lyrical twists. Tori Amos, Beth Orton, and Bjork were wildly different, but carried about them an obvious gravity; even Liz Phair’s sexual irreverence was rooted in the serious problem of sexual inequality.

Through the years, this picture of the solo female as singer-songwriter has shifted in interesting and probably heartening ways; these days, we’re more than familiar with Ida Maria, Lily Allen, Marnie Stern, and Kate Nash as figures that do their share to hold up images that are strong, but with a sense of irreverence. It’s somewhere in between the perceptions of serious, earthy songwriters and saucy, somewhat edgy singers that Polly Scattergood emerges; a forceful, breathy set of vocals taking precedence over a backdrop of ethereal sound.

It’s almost as if Scattergood has taken the best moments of the last 20 years in female rock history and studied them closely. Layered between moments of bare piano tracks are synthesizer-driven beats, creating an almost shockingly poignant soundscape. From the keyboard-heavy crescendos of “I Hate The Way”, it becomes clear that Scattergood’s forte is sadness. “My doctor said I’ve got to sing a happy tune,” she sings after weaving a tale of stark heartache, creating a wonderful and wrenching ending that evokes Marissa Nadler’s best lines.

Where Scattergood makes her true mark is in the ability to weave lyrical thickness with driving melody; “Other Too Endless”, “Please Don’t Touch”, and “Bunny Club” stand out immediately as very obvious and very British singles, though each track is laced with dark and contrasting imagery. Through the course of the album, her voice becomes a uniting factor, able to traverse both the twisted and the sweet through the album’s course. “Please Don’t Touch” hits a lilting note remniscent of Allen or Nash, where “Bunny Club”’s melody simply haunts.

It’s difficult not to find Scattergood’s work compelling from the very beginning, though it may take a few listens to make sense of the record as a whole. This is by no means a medley of sounds and moods; rather, it’s a well-orchestrated whole that executes each musical shift with a smooth elegance. What’s most remarkable is that no matter how far into the depths of despair Scattergood reaches (and when she channels death by suicide as in “Untitled 27″ or by cancer in “Breathe In Breathe Out”, those depths are very deep), her work retains a strange sense of hope. Polly Scattergood succeeds in evoking the serious while nodding at the irreverent, making for a most impressive debut.

Since we have a tendency to look below the radar for our music, we decided to take a weekly look at The Populist View. We’ll stop short of calling our tastes underground, let’s just say we’re pop-culturally inept. So we’ve devised a way to keep up to date.

Its quite simple actually. We’re just going to give side by side comparisons of top ten U.S. singles from Billboard’s Hot 100 chart and the Official top ten UK singles of every week. This way we’ll always know what’s spreading the cheese for radio programmers and people who still buy music in the two most influential music markets in the world. And if this week’s list is any indication, the people want their Black Eyed Peas and Lady Gaga on both sides of the Atlantic!

Billboard’s top ten U.S. singles for the week of 05.28.09
#01. “Boom Boom Pow” – The Black Eyed Peas
#02. “Poker Face” – Lady Gaga
#03. “Blame It” – Jamie Foxx feat. T-Pain
#04. “Don’t Stop Believin’” – Glee Cast
#05. “I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)” – Pitbull
#06. “New Divide” – Linkin Park
#07. “Day ‘N’ Nite” – Kid Cudi
#08. “Halo” – Beyonce
#09. “Birthday Sex” – Jeremih
#10. “Waking Up In Vegas” – Katy Perry

The Official top ten UK singles for the week of 05.28.09
#01. “Bonkers” – Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden
#02. “Boom Boom Pow” – The Black Eyed Peas
#03. “Number 1″ – Tinchy Stryder feat. N-Dubz
#04. “We Made You” – Eminem
#05. “Red” – Daniel Merriweather
#06. “In For The Kill” – La Roux
#07. “Not Fair” – Lily Allen
#08. “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” – Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em feat. Sammie
#09. “Poker Face” – Lady Gaga
#10. “Fairytale” – Alexander Rybak

We’ve been scrambling to keep you up-to-date as Glastonbury’s slowly leaked megaconfirmation after megaconfirmation in the past few months. But today’s full lineup announcement is something to behold, the headlining package of Neil Young, the Boss and a reunited Blur now propped up by a roster so behemoth and iron-clad, it’s equal parts intimidating and enticing. Also playing: Bloc Party, Lady Gaga, Jarvis Cocker, Regina Spektor, Maximo Park, Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Lily Allen, Tom Jones, Pete Doherty, Q-Tip, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Streets, Ray Davies and and and and…

There will be mud.

You might want to refer to him as Professor Coyne from now on, because the Flaming Lips frontman is getting back to the classroom basics this August. The now veteran musician will be teaching music to students at the University of Central Oklahoma, as part of a new music program set up for the college. At least he has the hair to fit the part of the nutty professor.

The Oklahoma university has set up a new Academy of Contemporary Music, which is focused on giving students an in-depth look at the music industry from seasoned professionals. The school is enlisting the help of industry giants like Greg Kurstin (Lily Allen’s producer) and Warner Bros. Records General Manager Tom Biery among a few others, who will be teaching classes in guitar, bass, drum, and vocal performance, as well as music production.

Scott Booker, who is head of the Flaming Lips’ artist management company, is the head behind the new academy. Working alongside the university and state officials, Booker was able to bring the new academy to Oklahoma, with the help and partnership of the U.K’s Academy of Contemporary Music, which was founded in 1995, according to PopMatters.

The new program will provide some of the best music industry education available at a collegiate level, and classes will take place off of, you guessed it, Flaming Lips Alley in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown district. The idea of Coyne in a classroom is not that ridiculous of an idea, but we’re pretty sure Win Butler probably won’t be signing up on Coyne’s class anytime soon.

For a 21 year old being touted by international media as a fresh face of electronic music, La Roux’s Elly Jackson has a pretty good head on her shoulders. The Brixton native, who with band mate Ben Langmaid comprise the duo, carries the interview out more like a conversation between friends than for a publication, and also isn’t afraid to swear.

Playing five dates on her mini-States tour, the red-headed one stopped in San Francisco to play Popscene as part of the Club NME series — a rag of which she has also been fawned over. But the show that night proved there are some truths behind the chops. Jackson took a bit to warm up to the crowd, playing closer songs “I’m Not Your Toy” and “Bulletproof” with more enthusiasm, dancing with her beats and facing out into the crowd more. She teased the audience by leaning into the front row almost tauntingly. “Which one of you is gonna have this up on YouTube tomorrow?” she asked before screams of confirmation answered her question.

We chatted with her pre-show, and in addition to her amicable nature, she also was very cool about our extreme stuttering problem from a lack of coffee.

“God, I’m so sorry I keep fucking up these questions,” I said apologetically. “Thank you for being patient.”

“Oh, no worries,” Jackson responded. “The point is that you get them right. I’d much rather have you say it the way you want to.”

Five Questions For La Roux
How much hair product do you think you use a month to get hair as awesome as yours?
Oh, wow, I don’t know. In a month, usually one can of mousse, intense mousse. You don’t need much wax but there’s that, and also very strong hairspray.

You’re an electronic powerhouse now, but you used to be more inclined to folk music when you first started out.
It wasn’t like we decided to electronic music out of the blue or anything. It just happened really naturally. My dad taught me guitar from the age of 6 and I was introduced to all music: rock and blues, folk. As a kid I liked Joni Mitchell a lot. I guess it was just kind of natural to write in that style. I wrote songs from the age of 12 and that’s where I pulled inspiration from. If you think about it, Paul Simon is pretty synthy — and you can quote me on that — people like Stevie Wonder also can fall into this. When I met Ben I’d written a lot of songs in a folk kind of area, and the more we wrote together, it just became a bit passé to us and we took it out of the tracks to start to go more dance.

For you, where is the line between creating original content and paying tribute?
I think there is a bit of both in what we do. It’s kind of annoyed me when people have taken the 50s or the 60s [to incorporate into their music], and people don’t bat an eyelid, but when you put the 80s in, people go, “What the fuck is wrong with you?” I mean, you weren’t there in the 50s, and then the counter is “But don’t you like rock and roll?” It’s like the 80s have this tainted thing on it. There is a lot of the revival of the leggings and spandex and American Apparel going on, but there was a classy cool romantic appeal that we’re appealing to, not the neon part. More Tears For Fears side.

While I was doing research I found there’s actually a band called LeRoux, which describes themselves as “Southern Rock/New Orleans Funk/Classic Rock/Power Ballad band with excellent harmonies, tight musicianship.” How do you differ?
Sounds like a big jerk off to me. What a bunch of assholes. Who says that about themselves?!

They do! On their own website, even.
That’s so contradictive as well, all the descriptions. Why do you need to write it down when it’s…ah, never mind (laughs).

Since you guys just got off a UK tour with her, is Lily Allen as horrible as she’s made out to be?
Do people think she is horrible? (laughs) To say what we think…like, when everyone else does that in their friend group, they’re not seen as bad. But when it’s written down and the facial expression is done, then it gets taken out of context. If one of your friends said it, you wouldn’t even remember if it sounds horrible or bitchy. She’s really not like that at all. But you have to know it to understand it. Someone went on my MySpace and left a comment that said “You’re such a bitch!” And that really hurts, because really, really, really, really I’m not a bitch, but now I can’t change your mind because you think I’m a cunt.