It's quarter to four, we're hanging out at the pizza place

I did intend to post about Gregory Lemarchal today, but events in the world of pop interfered; I'll probably get to him at some point (maybe tomorrow or maybe if I ever do a Fame Academy special), but for now, a conglomeration of random happenings:

Thanks to the incredibly in the know Split Chick, I now know that McFly's new logo has been revealed. This is it. You can see the less than enthusiastic reactions over at the Popjustice boards or mixed reactions at the official McFly boards. I have to admit my first reaction is not hugely positive, but perhaps it will work once we see the album cover? In fairness, I don't think I've ever given any thought to a band's logo before (although I did make sure to buy the Room On The Third Floor album with yellow text, not red), so I probably wouldn't have even thought about it if McFly hadn't announced that they were going to be revealing their new logo soon. It does sort of look wavy, which I guess might fit with the non-metaphorical meaning of their album title (unless they've changed the title, since HMV now lists it as "TBC"). I'm sort of more intrigued by the picture below the logo than anything, actually...

Here's one of my favorite non-singles from McFly's first album, "Surfer Babe"--it's light and frivolous but also bouncy and happy. Though I can't really picture it getting airplay in California, it totally sounds like what I'd like to imagine all of California is like.

The video for Sergey Lazarev's "Fake" is on YouTube. It is, quite appropriately, cheap, over-the-top, mildly exploitative, and features rain for no apparent reason; it goes without saying, then, that it is trashily enjoyable. If that isn't enough Sergey for you, you can also view the different video made to accompany a remix. I think both the remix video (featuring trippy lights and lots of standing in front of circles) and the remix itself (it's lost some of its crunch electro-ness) aren't as good as the originals, but here's the remix anyhow--it and the video are more retro-sounding.

Fake (Video Remix)

(Actually, on second thought, the remix video might be even more trashily enjoyable than the original--it's sort of '60's/'70's; I still prefer the original song, though.)

On a completely different note, Josh Groban has a new single, "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)," coming out, with an album to follow, according to unofficial sources, on November 7. You can listen to "You Are Loved" here (though you might want to open that link in a new window, since it takes you directly to the small audio player). Yes, I do listen to some of his music and, though I've never made it all the way through one of his albums at once, some of it is quite good. I won't try to justify it here--that would probably take up a whole post--but the exciting news is this: it's less classical than his earlier work. It definitely has classical influences, but it's more along the lines of a pop power ballad than anything else. Now, while "pop power ballad" isn't usually an exciting thing (and to be honest, I prefer some of his more classical ballads to this new single), this new somewhat-more-pop direction means there is a chance, a slight chance, an incredibly incredibly tiny chance but still a chance nonetheless--a chance that there might be an uptempo pop song on the new album! How exciting would that be? I'm thinking maybe something like Anthony Callea's "Into Your Heart," where you have a dancey background that makes up for not-really-very-fast vocals. Even a song like Anthony's/Ola's "Rain" could work well for him. I know the probability of this is practically infinitesimally small, but I can hope, can't I? Of course, even if he does do a faster song, there's no guarantee it would even be good...

To buy McFly's first album Room On The Third Floor (and you really should--it's great!), go here (physical) or here (digital); I still have no idea how to buy Sergey Lazarev's album, Don't Be Fake, short of eBay.

Next up: possibly Gregory Lemarchal, but I'm not totally psyched about that idea right now--maybe something more fun...

(That McFly logo is starting to grow on me, I think, which I didn't expect to happen, but in the right context, I could see it working. I'd buy the CD even if it looked like that picture up above, though.)

mcfly sergey lazarev josh groban