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The Austin 100: Sydney Wright

Sydney Wright.
Courtesy of the artist
Sydney Wright.

Hometown: Snyder, Texas

Genre: Indie Pop

Why We're Excited: In 2018, it was Kady Rain. In 2019, Dossey. This year's pure pop find from the great city of Austin is Sydney Wright, whose "You Can Stay" exudes dynamism and drama. With a bit of smartly deployed vocal processing — closer to Gordi than, say, Imogen Heap — Wright crafts a wildly catchy kiss-off anthem that bypasses simple slogans in favor of a more thoughtful awakening.

Listen to Sydney Wright's "You Can Stay"

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Stephen Thompson is a writer, editor and reviewer for NPR Music, where he speaks into any microphone that will have him and appears as a frequent panelist on All Songs Considered. Since 2010, Thompson has been a fixture on the NPR roundtable podcast Pop Culture Happy Hour, which he created and developed with NPR correspondent Linda Holmes. In 2008, he and Bob Boilen created the NPR Music video series Tiny Desk Concerts, in which musicians perform at Boilen's desk. (To be more specific, Thompson had the idea, which took seconds, while Boilen created the series, which took years. Thompson will insist upon equal billing until the day he dies.)

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