Sally Seltmann - Heart That's Pounding

June 11, 2010

Liz Caruso

The perfect prelude to the weekend? Some nostalgic remembrance of loved music from years back with the pleasant surprise of realizing one of your former "musical flames" has released a new album.

It took longer than it should have to make the connection between New Buffalo, whose releases had been some of my favorites back in 2005 through 2007, and Sally Seltmann, whose recent release quickly had me toe-tapping and humming along. When I finally realized Sally is the same brilliant female behind New Buffalo's captivating pop music, it all made a little more sense.

Despite releasing two albums under her previous pseudonym, her most recent, Heart That's Pounding is the first she's released under her actual name. And she's just as infectious as she used to be - perhaps even more so than before, with an album that draws influences from the days of classic pop. In fact, the first time I listened to her first single Harmony To My Heartbeat, I had learned the melody and was singing along (flubbing the lyrics while doing so) before the end. Afterwards, the song permeated my brain and I found it stuck in my head on several occasions, managing to make me smile any time it happened.

Heart That's Pounding is the perfect addition to any summer playlist, if you're in the mood for contagious pop songs with (mostly) sunny, uplifting undertones. Seltmann's voice is sugary without being overly sweet, the instrumentation complements the core melodies of each song without overpowering them, and I guarantee that you'll eventually want to sing along with every song. Either that, or most likely you'll start singing them at random moments against your own will anyway. (That's a good thing, trust me.)

Also, Seltmann announced a new video for Dream About Changing a couple days ago, so be sure to check it out below.