I'll give you all I can, give you all I am

Today, I'm giving you all just one song, but it's one I've often referenced and absolutely adore. It's the basis for much of my belief in Anthony Callea's potential--see, he can/could be an excellent popstar! We'll have to wait to see if this new album lives up to that potential; I don't expect an album full of perfection, but even a few indications of this pop-ness would be very welcome. This will also probably be the last raving about Anthony for a while (that is, until we actually hear more of his new music). Let's get straight into the song, though--it's a B-side that was on some of the singles for "Rain," so, unless you're really into Anthony's music (or even then), it's probably not widely heard.

Wanna Be The One--I am such a sucker for this stuff--pop music too pop to be dance-pop but with an aura of danceability to it, the little electronic squiggle in the background, the catchy chorus, the piano, and that big beautiful male vocal...I love it. Is this Anthony's best song? Probably not. Is it my favorite Anthony song? I think so. It doesn't work quite as well as it could, especially in the beginning (the chorus after the first verse is over too quickly), but I still love it (and love that, as good as it is, it hints at even greater potential). I think the best analogy is my feelings towards McFly's "Surfer Babe"--it's probably not the best song on their debut album, and hearing just it--not knowing anything else by McFly--might not be enough to win you over, but it's my favorite song on that album. That's how I feel about "Wanna Be The One"--it won't be everyone's favorite song, nor will everyone even like it, but, for me, putting it in context of the rest of Anthony's work, it really is amazing.

I'm going to indulge in a personal anecdote (which I normally try to keep to a minimum, but some songs I just can't avoid it--McFly's "Please Please," which has a similar effect on me through sheer amazingness, forced me to do so earlier, too). The first time I heard about this song--which was months after I had found out about Anthony--I embarked on a quest to find out what it sounded like (which was no easy task, as apparently it's relatively rare) since I wasn't about to order it unheard. I found one site--one site--that would let me listen to a preview of it. That preview was supposed to be 30 seconds, but something must have been wrong with the audio, because it would only play maybe 10 seconds of the song--and only half a second of Anthony actually singing. Nevertheless, in those 10 seconds, I fell madly in love with the song (which does make me wonder how much is about Anthony's voice and how much is about the song, but I do think his singing is a big part of it) and immediately ordered it. Two weeks later (do you know what it's like to listen to the same 10 second clip repeatedly for two weeks?!?), it arrived. On the first listen through, I felt a little disappointed--the song seemed sort of messy. On the second listen, though, I "got it" and, before I'd even finished the third listen, I'd realized that this song, flaws and all, could very well be my favorite Anthony Callea song...and one of my favorite songs, period (though I respect anyone who wants to disagree! In fact, most people do, both for technical reasons and for reasons of personal taste). In fact, it's so good that I can almost guarantee that I'll repost it at some point in the future (not the near future, though; don't worry) just so I can talk about it again, with more focus on the music itself that time.

To buy the double CD single for Anthony Callea's "Rain" (the only version that has "Wanna Be The One"), go here (physical).

Since I'm going to try and decrease my number of Anthony updates (although I just might have to comment on the music video, even if it falls into the grand Anthony Callea tradition of incredibly-low-budget-looking videos), I might as well throw in the other news of the moment. He just filmed the music video, which is all well and good, but more importantly, what did his hair look like? Well...


(Not my scan! Full credit and lots of thanks go to here).

...like that. What?!? I've never been a fan of this so-close-cropped-there's-barely-any-hair look (I don't even like it on Justin Timberlake, folks, sorry), but now I have another reason to upset with all the perpetrators of that particular hairstyle--it's infiltrating the world of pop! Will popstar hair soon be a thing of the past? What will happen to hair straighteners and gel for spikes?

For more photos of this particular new look, you can go here (they're from a live performance, not the videoshoot, and are taken by a fan--thanks for posting them! I guess it doesn't look that bad in those pictures...)

When I posted a low-quality version of Darin's new song "Perfect," I said that one of the amazing pop music blogs out there would probably have the high quality version soon. When I said that, I was thinking of Catchy Tunes of Sweden, center of high-quality Swedish pop, and now they have it--definitely go get the song, and if you don't visit CToS regularly, you absolutely must.

Next up: I'll be gone on Friday, and Saturday I might or might not be able to post, but I'll definitely be back by Sunday, with some posts less focused on personal response to a song and more on the music itself--I still have that Swedish singer to talk about, but Heinz Winckler's third album just arrived after about a month (which is still two months faster than a postcard I sent from Costa Rica, so I'm not complaining too much). I almost reviewed it today, but I didn't want to jump to conclusions; after having a couple of days to listen to it, I'll write about it.