CONFUSION ALL AROUND.

Today is a day of giving thanks, and here at Neon Gold we've certainly had a lot to be thankful for over the past year. Most recently though it's been Monarchy, whose debut single we'll have the honor of releasing on Neon Gold next February. We've already blogged the brilliant A-side "Gold In The Fire", but in the spirit of Thanksgiving we've got the B-side to share with you as well. "Black The Colour of My Heart" is all dramatic Royksopp-esque synth washes and Timbaland-style drum loops that draw you in before exploding into one of the biggest pop choruses of the year. It's only the second offering we've heard out of the Monarchy camp, but it's yet another reason they're being tipped left and right for massive things in the year to come. And no, we still don't know who they are either.

MP3: "Black The Colour of My Heart" - Monarchy

NEVERMIND WHAT ANYBODY ELSE DONE.

Yeasayer returned earlier this month with one of the most triumphant comeback singles of the year with "Ambling Alp", and now we've got an equally brilliant video to accompany it from the talented bros over at Spy Films. The track itself is like they took all the best moments from their excellent All Hour Cymbals debut LP and just upped the pop factor, the result coming off like a motivational pop hit from a freak folk boy band (and yes, we mean that in the best way possible). Their upcoming sophomore album Odd Blood just jumped to the upper echelons of our most anticipated albums of 2010, in the meantime enjoy the video (above) and revel in the glory pop of the single (below).

MP3: "Ambling Alp" - Yeasayer

BUT WE FIT TOGETHER SOMEHOW JUST RIGHT.

As eyes shift towards the music year ahead, people are beginning to place their bets on next year's crop of bright young things and Lunar Youth are leading the way with some of the most anthemic indie we've heard in ages. All Roxy Music vibes and a spiraling keys riff remenescent of The Cure's "Six Different Ways", their debut single "Misfits" is the perfect slice of autumnal indie and has found the perfect home with the lovely ladies of Young & Lost Club. With more stadium-ready anthems already in the bag - just listen to how huge "Venus In Blue Jeans" on the myspace is - we're expecting massive things from this lot in 2010, so don't sleep.

MP3: "Misfits" - Lunar Youth

MAKE IT WORK.

Body Language are some of our favorite people in the world, so we're thrilled to see everything blowing up for them at the moment. Since we first wrote about them last year, their fantastic debut Speaks EP has dropped on Moodgadget, they've impressed NYC crowds supporting La Roux and locked in an upcoming tour with Zero 7. Suffice it to say, things are going pretty damn well. With that, we're thrilled to premier the brilliant Yes Giantess remix of EP standout "Work This City", which comes off like a brilliant italo-disco update of "Star Guitar", all urban atmospherics and late night grooves.

MP3: "Work This City" (Yes Giantess Remix) - Body Language

WASHED UP ON THE SHORE.

The Sound of Arrows are quickly becoming one of our favorite bands in the world. They just do everything so masterfully - production, remixes, music videos, art direction, you name it... They're true auteurs of pop music. While we anxiously await new material from the Swedish duo, we've found ourselves reveling in some of their less-appreciated earlier work. "A Very Sad Song", taken from their 2008 Danger! EP, is one of their most beautiful tracks to date, their widescreen 80's pop production taking a backseat to the stirring emotion of Stefan Storm's songwriting. These guys' talent really knows no bounds.

MP3: "A Very Sad Song" - The Sound of Arrows

HEAVENS OPEN.

You may or may not have heard of Stornoway from their relentless UK festival touring, but if you're in the latter camp, boy oh boy are you in for a treat. First off, these guys aren’t from Stornoway, despite the celtic-folk influences they’re all just pure brainiacs from Oxford, with a bunch of PhDs between them and some insane instrumental skills. With literate lyrics and haunting stentorian harmonies they make music that has you weeping into your microwave meal-for-one before anyone can say "man the fuck up."

Their debut single "Zorbing" is a folk pop anthem all about "tripping" over girls in autumn time: perfect listening to warm your cockles on these cold mornings. It’s not just Brian Briggs’ stirring tenor that gets you, but the whole ramshackle folk-pop vibe reminiscent of back-in-the-day James circa-"If Things Were Perfect" with the powerful yearnings of Belle & Seb. Following hot on the trail of Guillemots and Mumford & Sons they’re jaunty, wistful and SO ELECTRIFYING.

MP3: "Zorbing" - Stornoway

ALONE IN THE DARK.

This band is like a pot of synth gold at the end of the pop rainbow. Gypsy & The Cat are Xavier Bacash and Lionel Towers, two chill bros from Melborne, Oz creating some of the best new soft-pop sounds around. Within the first few seconds of “Jona Vark” I pretty much had a flashforward to singing this chorus at a bus stop in five years time, because This. Song. Sticks. It’s just swimming in a hazy soup of reverbed Fleetwood Mac vocals, acoustic guitars and smooth blasts of synth, and you know how we love a bit of synth. We’re a sucker for the whole blissed-out pop aesthetic Australia seems to have mastered with the likes of Empire of the Sun, Gotye, PNAU and Tim & Jean so when these guys hit our peripherals we were eager to hear more, but as they're still yet to put out an official release, we’ll just have to keep this on single repeat in the meantime.

MP3: "Jona Vark" - Gypsy & The Cat

SO NERVOUS.

As promised, we've got the first installment of the wonderful remixes of our upcoming single with Penguin Prison here for you today, this one from the amazing and beautiful Sound of Arrows. Not unlike the Baby Monster remix we posted earlier this week, the Sound of Arrows take "Animal Animal" and do a brilliant job of reinterpreting the original and casting it in a dramatic new light. Dressing it up in all manner of Boards of Canada-esque atmospherics and a swirling 80's melodrama, the remix is a significant departure from the bubbly effervescence of the Penguin Prison original, but succeeds in accessing a whole new realm of emotion on the track.

MP3: "Animal Animal" (The Sound of Arrows Remix) - Penguin Prison [exclusive]

LIKE ALL THE BOYS BEFORE.

Today marks the triumphant release of our tenth single on Neon Gold, Ellie Goulding's amazing Under The Sheets 7", which looks set to be our fastest-selling release yet. To celebrate the occasion we've got some fresh exclusive remixes on hand from newcomers Pariah and Baby Monster, both of whom masterfully recontextualize the Starsmith-produced original in a dramatic new light. Fresh off our CMJ party, West Coast bright young things Baby Monster drop a beautiful take on the original, a slow-burning epic that gradually develops to a rousing, emotive climax.

MP3: "Under The Sheets" (Baby Monster Remix) - Ellie Goulding [exclusive]

Pariah follows up his spotlight-grabbing remix for The XX with another winner, turning Ellie's "you left a bloodstain" lyric into a haunting, visceral refrain and plunging the track into realm of darkness rarely approached on Ellie's original tracks. Both shine as inspiring interpretations that pull the original in all manner of new directions and contribute to a remix package that's shaping up to be one of the year's most exciting, rounded out by a massive hands-in-the-air Jakwob remix that's available on iTunes from next Monday.

MP3: "Under The Sheets" (Pariah Remix) - Ellie Goulding [exclusive]

Elsewhere, the phenomenal "Under The Sheets" video (above) has been kicking about for a minute now, but Ellie fans would do well to keep tabs on her official YouTube channel as well. Additionally, those still looking to lock down a copy of the 7" would be wise to move fast, as copies are quite literally flying off the shelves and will be sold out in no time. Records are still available from the Neon Gold Shop (US) and Puregroove (UK), get on it.

WALK ON WATER.

Oh man, this is so so good. Coming out of absolutely nowhere are Think About Life with what is easily one of the most amazing singles of the year in "Havin' My Baby". It's like a fucking spiritual awakening, all the best parts of TV On The Radio and the chipmunk soul of Graduation-era Kanye West, thanks to frontman Martin Cesar's urgent falsetto and the best use of a sample in indie pop since Mike Angelakos first hooked the world with that infectious Mary O'Hara sample in "Sleepyhead". Seriously, this shit is so good it hurts. HAVIN MA BABIE.

MP3: "Havin' My Baby" - Think About Life

A RHYME AND A DREAM.

When we last checked in with Chiddy Bang, they were having one of the biggest coming out parties of the year with their massive remix of MGMT's "Kids" lighting up the blogs and turning all kinds of heads in the music industry. Now their back with a slightly refined line up and a fresh debut mixtape for the masses, The Swelly Express, sampling the likes of Passion Pit, Ratatat and Sufjan Stevens alongside older favorites like "Fresh Like Us" and "Kids". It's the Sufjan jam we're most smitten with though, as Chiddy beatsmith Xaphoon Jones takes "Chicago" and turns it on its head, reworking it into one of the years illest mixtape jams. "All Things Go" is available for individual download below, or you can cop the full mixtape here.

MP3: "All Things Go" - Chiddy Bang