Who is popular today?

Fed up with texting her husband when he was working abroad, Laima Leyton turned domestic drama into a rapturous electronic pop album – with a twist
When you are a musician and the primary parent at home – with five children between you and your partner – how do you make space to be creative? Especially when you have recently arrived in Britain from Brazil, and your husband, with whom you regularly make music, is often away for his work.
Out of the culture shock and loneliness, Laima Leyton has made an album full of sharp, precise electronic pop: the inventive and thoughtful Home. Pulsing in between the sounds of Jenny Hval, Ladytron and Laurie Anderson, it is about the questions thrown at you by long-term relationships, parenthood and where you belong. “I got to the stage where I wasn’t fussed about being a big techno DJ any more, pleasing the kids,” Leyton says. “I thought: ‘Why can’t I share the other things I think about? Why can’t I turn that into music?’” Continue reading...