I won't even wish for snow

I thought about making this special last a little longer, and I might return to Christmas songs at some point, but this is the last poppy song that I feel sure about the quality of that I've thought of at the moment (I have two songs I might package together in the very near future), so for now, this will be the end of the special...and, as mentioned at the beginning, it's a return to Magnus Carlsson. Robpop (when not making insanely long and insanely good posts about girl bands) is scarily good at making predictions, so today's song probably won't surprise anyone who has read the comments. At any rate, it comes from Magnus Carlsson's first solo album, En Ny Jul, released under just the name "Magnus" back in 2001. It, like yesterday's song, is a cover of a very well-known Christmas song and, though I'm not going to claim that it tops the original, it's at least serviceable.

All I Want For Christmas Is You--off the top of my head, I can't think of as many covers of this song as I can for "Last Christmas," maybe because Mariah Carey's version is just so great that it's difficult to top. The differences here aren't limited to male vocals instead of female; it's not quite as vocally over the top (not that Mariah's version really includes a lot of showboating). Really, this song is just about fun, especially in this cover version. It's not quite as danceable as the average Alcazar song, but it's still uptempo and smile-worthy. In essence, cheesy but definitely enjoyable.

To buy Magnus Carlsson's debut album, En ny jul, go here (physical).

Besides the latest installment of Don't Stop The Pop's girl bands megapost, here are some other excellent sites to visit:

Even though my Christmas special is sort of ending, The Zapping and The Hotstuff Files both have Christmas countdowns going on, with daily Christmas pop music for you, and are both wonderful, funny sites even when we're not in the midst of the holiday season.

If you read this blog, definitely check out Digital Technique. After some redesigns, this top-class (great format, always informational but not intimidating, and, most importantly, great music!) pop-oriented music blog has settled in to its new home on Blogger and continues to post great music--Bellefire, Rachel Stevens, Mania, Moonbaby, Frank, and now some of the Blue boys. Sigh...I love it!

Ben Adams, formerly of A1 and now of a really-should-be-huge solo career, now has his revamped official site operational! While we wait for new music, I'll take what I can get. Oh, and his MySpace site still has "Red Lady" up for download--it's not at all like "Sorry," but it's still very good.
Edit: in further proof that Ben has not fallen off the face of the planet (though the songs on his MySpace are updated pretty frequently), there's an actual real interview with him here...there's no information about when his album, It's Brutal Out There, will be released (it has to be released!), though apparently he will soon be selling personalized birthday songs on his MySpace...

Next up: I hope you all don't overdose on Magnus, because he'll be returning for another winter holiday. For now, though, maybe a Mexican singer will be up next.