If you look in the right places, 2013 was a wonderful year for pop...
synthpop (not to be confused with ARTPOP!). In this rate, we're ignoring the fact Katy Perry just earned her Metacritic high with the 62-rated Prism. We're not going to acknowledge ARTPOP's opening week sales. There's zero loss about the fact Rihanna did not have her yearly November release this time around. And we couldn't care less about how bored Britney looks in
this era's covers. No, no, this is about the
cool girls.
Welcome to
"When Cool Girls Take Over", where we're celebrating the new wave of indie female artists who have made their debuts over the past year. We'll be rating their collective 43 debut album/EP tracks to determine which song is the sound of the underground
(shameless, corny Girls Aloud reference) pop scene of 2013.
Let's meet the contenders.
Rihanna-month of 2012 saw the release of Solange's
True, which sticks out in this rate as the only A) R&B-centric contender and B) EP. The EP was greeted to much acclaim; scoring higher on Metacritic than any of her sister's four albums and lead single "Losing You" boasting its position on several year-end charts. The Devyn Hynes produced EP makes wonderful use of heavy synths, a common theme between the four albums of our rate.
English native Charli XCX made her debut five months later with
True Romance. The incredibly catchy and personal 13-track album named after a Tarantino film detailed the 21-year-old's romantic life with post-break-up-angst anthems like "You (Ha Ha Ha)" (which you may have heard in a commercial!) and an ode to that special someone in "You're the One" (not to be confused with 'You're Not the One' that Sky is competing with!).
Icona Pop's claim to fame is the biggest hit single amongst the rate's 43 songs. Hitting the television screens as the Snooki and JWOWW theme song and eventually taking over the radio, "I Love It" peaked at #7, boasting as the highest peaking song in the rate - by far. The ladies went onto release
This Is... Icona Pop on September 2013, an eclectic pop album with EDC influence. Will fellow rate contender Charli XCX's solo work be beat by her feature on this album or will these ladies fail to impress?
Finally, we have Sky Ferreira's
Night Time, My Time. A long overdue album following two acclaimed EPs, the album was released not more than a month ago. With rock being more dominant in this album, Sky sets herself apart from her synthpop counterparts with hard hitters like "You're Not the One" and "Heavy Metal Heart". It's interesting to note that the album was fully co-produced by Rechstaid, who is credited to tracks Solange's
True and Charli's
True Romance, as well. Was NTMT his best work?
TL;DR? You'll be rating
EVERY song on a scale of 0-10 (.5 decimals are allowed). Please abstain from trolling, i.e. ranking all your favorite artist's tracks a 10 and your least favorite artist's tracks 0.
Ballots are OPEN and will be due on a date to be determined. Feel free to use this thread to discuss the albums, tracks, whatever, and enjoy listening and ranking!
Tracklists & YouTube links
The "Rihanna-month" had me hollering 
This will be a tough rating 