Saturday, April 28, 2007

You gotta love me, say that you need me

Poor Fabrizio Faniello. Yes, I know the line is that his live performance at this past year's Eurovision was a car-crash contest between which was worse, the styling or the vocals (though I'll have to take people's word on the vocals, as I have no ear whatsoever for such things), but he still deserved better than last place. The studio version of "I Do" was one of my favorites (and a song I still listen to now), a happy upbeat poppy (Euro-poppy, maybe) song that easily got stuck in your head and you didn't really mind having there. Anyhow, 2006 wasn't the Maltese singer's first encounter with Eurovision--back in 2001, he did much better with "Another Summer Night," sort of Latin- or Mediterranean-light and less aggressively upbeat than "I Do," taking ninth. He's also released some great non-Eurovision music over the years. I think he may be best known for "I'm In Love (The Whistle Song)," but, if you're into this sort of male-sung super-poppy songs, he's got a lot more that's worth checking out, including the following song, the single from his recently released greatest hits album.

Love Me Or Leave Me (Radio Mix)--I practically live for songs like this. It's pop of what would most likely be called the cheesy variety, and I love my cheesy pop, but I'm not really sure that this totally qualifies. Still, that phrase should give you an idea of what to expect from this song, and it won't disappoint. Definitely pure pop, utterly adorable, super-catchy--what's not to love? This won't convince any of you of its merits, but--not that I don't love other sorts of music--if this doesn't sum up my musical tastes (or at least one half of them), I don't know what does.

To buy Fabrizio Faniello's greatest hits album, Hits and Clips, go here (physical); however, you might be better off buying his music through iTunes--even the U.S. store has a good amount of his music; not his first album or his greatest hits, but it does have the "Love Me Or Leave Me" and "I Do" EPs and his second and third studio albums, among other things.

Sigh...I was hoping by now to be raving about Laakso's new album Mother, Am I Good-Looking?, but I somehow managed to mess up my address on the preorder form, so who knows when or if it will arrive. I'm very excited about it, though--"Norrköping" is easily one of the year's best songs so far and "Italy vs Helsinki" is great as well--and wanted you all to know I haven't forgotten about it.

Next up: I'm not sure--maybe that Icelandic song, or a different one.

3 comments:

orange anubis said...

I'd been telling everyone to watch out for Fabrizio at last year's Eurovision on the strength of the studio version, I had to do a lot of hurried backtracking in the end!

D'luv said...

I must admit, I'm curious as to where your thoughts lie on the Scooch song?

Poster Girl said...

I know! Who knows what happened...not pretty, whatever it was. It was a shame, though, because the song by itself is pretty great Europop.

J'ason, I like it and do not get the huge backlash against it at all. Keeping in mind that I haven't properly listened to all the songs yet, it's not my favorite song but it's somewhere in my (still very messy) top 15, and very solidly in that. Judging on the studio version, that is--as far behind as I am on listening to songs, I'm even further behind in watching performances, and those can change a lot anyway. The "bop badda bop baddas" are especially great! Plus, it's got a handclappy breakdown--extra points. That said, I have no idea how it will actually do--but I like it.