Keep my kisses off your lipstick, stop me swallowing your charms

Everyone has old songs and albums they'd love to have leak. Whether it's the Girls@Play demos, an unreleased Deuce single, or some PWL songs, there are countless songs locked up in storage that fans, knowing they will never be released, are dying to get their hands on in any form. I have a bit of a list myself: anything Ben Adams has done, the Catch (the Danish group) album, the Tony Lee Scott album, any second album songs Eric Dill recorded with the Click Five before leaving--but I think the locked-away-in-storage album I'd most like to hear is Ainslie Henderson's original debut album. The British Fame Academy contestant originally only released one single, but what a single it was. I get the impression that his behavior on the show was...divisive, shall we say? Not having watched it, though, my first introduction to him was his top 5 (in 2003) single "Keep Me A Secret," a song which I fell instantly in love with. The album it was supposed to accompany, though, was shelved when Ainslie was dropped; I think I remember reading somewhere that it was too racy for them or something, though neither the single nor "Coming Up For Air," a song revealed on his MySpace and said to be from that album (he still has the rights to the songs from it), fits that description. Ainslie has gone on to release an album, one I'm a little curious about but have not purchased; it's made up of new material and, I think, less poppy, maybe more indie, more "singer-songwriter," though to say that gives a false impression of "Keep Me A Secret": it was co-written (along with two other Fame Academy contestants) by Ainslie and has a certain feel to it that fits with that while still being a perfect pop song.

Keep Me A Secret--why do I love this song so much? I don't think I can say. From the very first second, the music is perfect, written and produced flawlessly--the right musical squiggle here, the right squiggle there. There's just an undefinable magic around the song (something I'd also say when attempting to get across my love of Darius's best songs). It shows a sophistication in music creation to create a song so perfect and that manages to be completely poppy while not at all being what you'd probably first think of when you hear "poppy," but it's not a pretentious sort of sophistication at all--just the sort that leads to brilliant songs. It's almost like a new subgenre of pop, but one that's so unassuming and never given the chance to develop fully that I don't think I can truly describe its characteristics. For lack of a better phrase, "Keep Me A Secret" shows exactly what "singer-songwriter pop" should sound like by not sounding at all what we've come to associate the term "singer-songwriter" with. Compare this to, say, any John Mayer single--"Keep Me A Secret" just feels so much more...alive.

To buy Ainslie Henderson's debut single "Keep Me A Secret" (it has two b-sides, including the great "Take Out Time"), go here (physical) or here (digital).

Next up: maybe a Swedish singer.