Earlier this year we picked New York electro outfit LCD Soundsystem’s upcoming album as one of our most anticipated of 2010. Well if the anthem they debuted while performing at Yves Saint Laurent’s recent show at Paris Fashion Week is any indication, our selection will be more than justified. According to the band’s label, the song is a reinterpretation of “Beginning of The Heartbreak” a 1979 number by experimental composer Peter Gordon and The Love Of Life Orchestra. Coupled with YSL’s epic seventies-influenced collection, it’s also a sublime example of how the perfect song can elevate a fashion show to soaring new heights. Check out the video below.

-Daniel Barna

Matt Morris says country music has never been his thing. Growing up in Denver, his father, Gary Morris, was a successful country crooner who had a string of number one hits in the late eighties. And although Morris says his father influenced him in many ways, he assures you won’t find any country-twang on his latest album, “When Everything Breaks Open.” “I’m not really a country singer,” he says over the phone from Los Angeles. “And I’m gay, too…country radio doesn’t really show much love to the gay artists. It never really seemed like the right fit for me.”

Morris’ new album – which was released on January 12 – is a soulful, folk-rock record. His melodic, acoustic sound can be heard throughout, with a touch of playful-pop flavor. Morris says it has a lot of musical texture. “I would describe the sound of the album as eclectic, soul music,” he says. “To me, it is music that you’re meant to listen to with your heart, as well as your ears. It’s music that’s intended to hit you on all different levels.”

Morris has some major superstar power backing him up. The 30-year old musician/songwriter is signed under Tennman Records, which Justin Timberlake heads up. Morris and Timberlake first met when they were part of the Mickey Mouse Club in the late nineties, and since then have remained good friends. It was actually Timberlake who encouraged Morris to sign under his music label back in 2007. Timberlake is co-producer on the album and has said “Matt is kind of like Ray LaMontagne meets Elton John meets Stevie Wonder meets Rufus Wainwright…It’s time for the birth of the hybrid artist.”

For Morris, signing under his friend’s label was about working with someone who really believed in his music. “I signed under Tennman Records not because ‘Justin Timberlake the superstar’ was going to be the head of the label, but because Justin Timberlake my friend was going to help me make an album. I did this because I could trust him. I did this because I had faith he was going to do what he said he was going to do.”

Morris, who has penned songs for Timberlake, Christina Aguilera, and Kelly Clarkson, among others, says he is a performer first and foremost. Most recently, he sang on the Late Show with David Letterman, and the celebrity-packed telethon, “Hope for Haiti Now.” Morris, alongside Timberlake, performed a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”

The humble artist says the timing feels right for the debut of his newest album. After taking a break from the industry to get married to his partner Sean, start a family, and buy a house, he feels he now has meaningful things to write and sing about. Morris says he is inspired by ordinary and beautiful things around him, and he hopes his songs touch people in a very real way. “You have listen to them. You have to give them a second. If you do give it a second, I think you’ll remember them. I think there’s a chance they may speak to you.” It’s a message this break-out artist hopes will resonate with his fans for years to come.

- Emily Anonuevo

Berkeley California’s The Morning Benders record their illuminating debut single “Excuses” with a group of friends in San Francisco and it’s a revelation. The soaring number is a passionate, whimsical collaboration between friends who look like they’ve been playing music together forever. This is the stuff dreams are made of.

Björk. Sigur Rós. Múm. Being a band from Iceland can be a tall order. With so many big stars looming over you, how do you make a name for yourself outside the borders of the tiny nation? According to Seabear, you just go with the flow.

Everything about Seabear seems to have just come about organically, much the way their music feels. Sindri Sigfússon began writing music as Seabear around 2002. In the following years, he produced a few EPs and two LPs, picking up session players along the way. “After a while they just joined the band,” Sigfússon says, and eventually these players came to make up the seven-piece as it is today. As the band grew, so did their music. Each record was more delicate and detailed than the last, and the progression seemed natural. Their songwriting process was just as organic as their formation. Sigfússon talks about how the seven of them simply gather in their practice space and see what happens. He also waves away the fact that their lyrics are in English. Sigfússon was only following the musical heroes of his youth, saying, “I don’t think it matters if you sing in English, Icelandic, or whatever, as long as it’s done well.”

Their rise into the international consciousness is nearly as serendipitous as their creative process. Seabear got picked up by German label, Morr Music, a few years ago when the owner of the label caught a Seabear show in Berlin and “liked it, I guess,” says Sigfússon. Soon, their songs began to get picked up for soundtracks, including some high profile placements in Finding Neverland and Gossip Girl. “The money we got for Gossip Girl paid for a whole five-week tour we did,” the singer recalls. Since then, the band has received attention from all over the world and has had tours to match.

The band is currently promoting their new album release — entitled “We Built a Fire” — and the slew of tours that will follow (including North American dates this spring). Sigfússon, however, remains laid back about it. “I just hope people have fun,” he says.

We’re pretty confident they will.

- Casey Bridgers

Singer-songwriter Greg Laswell has the kind of deep and textured voice that grabs you from the first note of a song to the very last hum. The California-native has released three albums in his stellar career, all of which fall under a hauntingly moody and lush blanket of music and lyrics. Laswell has a rare ability to convey raw emotion and intimacy through both his voice and his songs. He’s been compared to artists such as Jeff Buckley and Ron Sexsmith, but the truth is, Laswell stands out because he’s able to look outside himself and see his life as a viewer — making his autobiographical music a soundtrack that we can all call our own. Listen to Laswell’s rendition of Kate Bush’s “This Women’s Work” off his “Covers” EP, below, and look out for his new album, “Take a Bow” due out this spring.