Tart Aussie teen crafts glamorous pop that moms can love and dudes can tolerate
Next time you’re watching a “sassy behavior” montage in a romantic comedy, dollars to donuts this effervescent 17-year-old Australian/Italian lass will provide the soundtrack, neatly triangulating saucy Euro-trash pop and prim retro belting: half Goldfrapp, half Frappuccino. The dreamy, strutting “Sweet About Me” was a minor 2008 hit Down Under; now Cilmi (pronounced chill-me) takes America with a bubblegum smack to her lilac-Winehouse voice and an armload of junior-high-sleepover and girls’-night-out jams. (Actual chorus: “I don’t want to go to bed now.”) Social commentary is not her specialty (“You put a man on the moon/But you can’t save that baby/And that pains me”), but she’s got vaguely empowering edge-of-17 (or -27, or -37) jams for days. Look for her to make Confessions of a Shopaholic II just a little more bearable.

Download “Sweet 
About Me,” “Save the Lies (Good to Me)”