Ten Sugarpop Bands We're Not Ashamed to Love

We’re aware that this genre didn’t exist until we coined it just now. A Google search revealed that “sugarpop” is a kid group that performed on GMA’s SOP sporting tuxedos and pink frilly dresses and fashionably-mussed hair and covering songs that were way beyond their emotional and hormonal depth. And, as it turns out, that’s a pretty good definition of sugarpop the genre. A little twee, kind of precious, it usually contains some combo of handclaps and cellos and boy-girl duos dressing in Value Village Mad Men chic. The duos in question might even make music videos where they wear pink tights as pants and roller skate through old skate parks carrying balloons. Overall, it’s a genre that serious music snobs should stay far, far away from.

Except we love some of the adorable kiddie bands that fit this description, with the kind of gooey inner-meltings we could never feel about LCD Soundsystem! Those harmonies! Those cellos! Those handclaps! Those vintage corduroy jackets! To save face and assuage the cravings of your inner 16-year-old, here are 10 of the best sugarpop bands, the ones that (we’re deciding!) are serious and groundbreaking and worthy of your time, or, if none of those things, then just plain swoonable.

1. Bishop Allen
The only thing keeping these Brooklyn-based former Harvard students from dominating the Top 40s are their clever lyrics and the xylophone. While their latest album Grrr… was certainly respectable, their 2007 release The Broken String stands as their greatest example of pop brilliance. The chorus of “Flight 180” is lively enough rouse Brian Wilson from his bed on his worst day, and their song “Click, Click, Click, Click” is also simple enough to be a favorite for the under-12 set in your life too. In our book, any kid-friendly song that doesn’t make adults want to eat their own young is a serious plus.

2. Slow Club
This UK duo has really obnoxious videos (pink-tights-roller-skating obnoxious) but their boy-girl harmonies and rollicking melodies are full and fun and make you tap your foot in spite of yourself.

3. Nada Surf -
Perhaps the worst thing that ever happened to this band was their 1996 hit song “Popular.” The tongue-in-cheek anthem resonated with high school underdogs everywhere, but also nearly pushed them into the “one-hit wonder” category. Their 2008 album Lucky contains a similar teenage angst. But rather than making one feel glad he’s past the awkward high school years, this pop rock album begs its listener to open up the senior year book and celebrate the glory and tragedy of it all.

4. Ra Ra Riot
“Can You Tell” starts with the line “Oh, have I been too discreet” and then devolves into a refrain about someone’s “sister fair,” we’re not exactly sure whose. But despite the archaic word use and inversion-for-its-own-sake, this song is unnervingly gorgeous. The cello mixed with Wes Miles’ earnest voice will make you want to reenact the kiss scene from Last of the Mohicans.

5. Rilo Kiley
This Jenny Lewis project’s most recent album Under the Blacklight is indisputably girly pop music. But it’s so damned fun, even the manliest of men can’t help but like it. The album’s opening track “Silver Lining” introduces bubbly guitar hooks that run their way through the entire album, creating lovely pop songs, and inspiring awful dance moves.

6. Regina Spektor
She has it all, the handclaps, the synthy background pops, the otherworldly vocals. “Fidelity” from Begin to Hope bounces along from start to finish as though a cheerful yellow dot were guiding Spektor through each word.

7. The Paper Raincoat
This adorable Brooklyn band’s new self-titled record seems to contain all of the energy of New York City, with frantic percussion backing beautiful string arrangements and warm vocals from singers Amber Rubarth and Alex Wong. Their single “Sympathetic Vibrations” uses genius polyrhythms to balance the near saccharine sweetness of Rubarth’s storybook delivery. We think the world might be a little better if everyone heard this record, and they can. The whole album is  available to stream here, and each week, a new song will be made available for download. 

8. Sally Seltmann
Though many of her albums have been darker and more understated, Seltmann’s latest, Harmony to My Heartbeat, is chock full of handclaps, layered harmonies, ringing bells and all sorts of poppy deliciousness.

9. Elizabeth & The Catapult
Elizabeth Ziman went to the Berklee College of Music, where she planned to build a career scoring films. While her day job is fronting her band, she still creates film-worthy atmospheres inside infectious pop numbers. Never has a songstress been so charming when telling her boyfriend to grow the eff up.

10. Mika
Both of his major albums have been ridiculously syrupy—full of kids singing, “everybody’s gonna love today” declarations and skyrocketing beats. He borders on annoying, but the catchiness wins out.