"Too Close" Alex Clare

Have you heard about this dubstep thing? It's the latest craze sweeping the nation. All the cool kids are doing it! (Even the Grammys got in on the action earlier this year when they nominated Skrillex for Best New Artist.) You wouldn't know it from listening to pop radio, though. The electronic dance music subgenre may have taken over clubs and frat parties across America, but the airwaves are largely free of its signature wobble effects and bass drops—save for the occasional hipster-baiting breakdown in major label releases like Britney Spears' underappreciated "Hold It Against Me."

Now it seems that Alex Clare's "Too Close" has the potential to be the first true crossover success of the dub-pop era. Already a top ten hit in Clare's native Britain (where dubstep originated and stars like Katy B regularly rock the charts), "Close" is currently impacting Stateside, thanks to a featured spot in Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 ad this past spring. Conventional wisdom would suggest its foreboding synths and laden pacing are too heavy for mainstream audiences, especially in the thick of summer. But the quirky percussive instrumentation of the verses and the stirring blue-eyed soul vocal make "Close" feel like a natural follow-up to "Somebody That I Used to Know" or "Rolling in the Deep" on a radio playlist. It will be interesting to see how far this one can go. A-