Ain't no need to audition

Credit for introducing me to the focus of today's post goes to Russkipop, which featured him back in March. Sergey Lazarev (on the right) was one-half, along with Vlad Topalov, of Russian duo Smash!! (I don't know that much about Smash!!'s history, but I like to imagine that some Russian music producer decided it was a shame Wham! wasn't around anymore, found two attractive guys, chose an onomatopoeic word reflecting collisions, upped the ante by adding two exclamation marks instead of one, and released them upon the world). After a couple of years of success, Smash!! split up and Sergey and Vlad decided to pursue solo careers. Sergey was first out of the gate with his album, as Vlad chose to release one more album under the name "Smash!!" before recording under his own name.

Fake--when I first listened to this song, I liked it, but I didn't think it would have any staying power. Surprisingly, months later, I am still listening to it. Yes, the lyrics are somewhat ludicrous (and there aren't even that many of them), but when has that ever hindered a good pop song? Good electro backing, catchy chorus--even the half-spoken, half-sung parts are catchy. According to his official site, "Fake"--the fourth single from his album Don't Be Fake--has been released to UK clubs. Crazy as it sounds (I still can't believe I'm writing this), I really recommend this song; it's just...fun, for lack of a better word.

In other news, two new songs by these two young men have been revealed. I'd still have to give "The Rejection" and "Give Me Danger" the edge in my favorites of theirs contest, but they are good. I don't want to refer to them by name (I'm hoping that anyone who finds out about them because they read this blog is likely to buy them once they are legally released, as opposed to finding them here because of googling and not buying them once they're available, even though they'll probably be everywhere quite soon--given that this is an mp3 blog, I don't know what makes this different than any other post, but whatever), but they are here and here (links removed since I just found out the EP is available to buy from iTunes today; since it's newly released, I don't want to post download links for it); for more details, go to Arjan Writes (see the blogroll on the right).

I would give you a site for buying Sergey Lazarev's first album, Don't Be Fake, but I don't know any sites that sell it and I don't know much about Russian music stores, so the best I can do is recommend eBay; to buy the first EP by the latter group (which doesn't have the songs featured today), go here (digital; only valid for US residents) or to iTunes.

Next up: Matt Willis releases "Hey Kid" tomorrow, so I might write a bit about him, or post about Vlad or Smash!! (and I'll try to use fewer parantheses).

sergey lazarev