One Track Mind

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Anjulie‘s debut record isn’t due to drop until August of 2009, but her label has been working promotion on the album since the fall of 2008.  With good reason, I think, given how marketable and accessible her sound is on “Boom.”  This song simultaneously channels vocal standard romps like Peggy Lee’s oft-covered “Fever,” the throwback soul of contemporaries like Adele and Amy Winehouse, and the quirky exoticism of indie darlings M.I.A. and Santigold.

At first glance, Anjulie is a licensing department’s holy grail, coupling an indie-enough credibility with an easily palatable pop sensibility.  It’s just as easy to imagine “Boom” on the soundtrack to the next Tarantino flick as on a Diet Pepsi commercial.

The hook here, punctuated by grumbling baritone saxophones and the tweeting high ends of the rest of the horn section, is downright unshakable.  (And speaking of Tarantino, that dusty guitar riff would feel right at home alongside Nancy’s “Bang Bang.“)