Saturday, September 01, 2007

Se acabó

I've now officially decided that Icelandic singer Páll Óskar's most recent single, "International," is better than his upcoming album's lead single, "Allt fyrir ástina" (check out that post for more information on him), and, with it seemingly on track to end up one of my most played tracks of the year, I can't help but share it.

International--tell me it borrows the language jumping of "Sorry." Tell me we'll get a million male-fronted dance-pop tracks this year. I don't care. Packing more punch, more bite than "Allt fyrir ástina" (which I love as well), "International" is a catchy pop song that once again borrows from dance and disco--or maybe dance song that borrows from pop and disco? Anyway, it's incredibly easy to listen to, in that it's ever so easy, having finished once, to just go back and play it one more time...and maybe one more time...and maybe once more... It's distinctive and hard-hitting enough (it's like a mini-explosion of glitterballs) to not just be more faceless dance music, but each part of it just flows so effortlessly into the next without ever letting up on that catchiness that you practically want to put the song on loop and just keep listening. I love pretty much everything about it, the slower verses, the stronger chorus which goes from slow to fast, that building middle 8, everything. In short, "International" is fantastic--talk about a great comeback.

To buy Páll Óskar's single "International," go here (digital). Since this is a new single, it'll only be available for a short time--I know I said that about Maria Arredondo and then took a week to take the song down, but this one really will be up for just a day or so. There just needs to be more hype around this track (though it's doing very well in Iceland in terms of sales and radio play).

4 comments:

Paul said...

so so SO much good stuff to catch up on. Yay for Jonathan Fagerlund, his new single is gorje isn't it. I can't believe i missed your birthday! Many happy belated returns :) Now i need to go and digest everything witten here :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the tip about this song!

Given he sings the phrase "I love you" in various languages, I think he really sings "S' agapo" ("I love you" in Greek), not "Se acabó" :)

It all brought me back memories of the amazingly bad 2001 Eurovision Greek entry "S.A.G.A.P.O." sung by that tuneless cyborg!

Poster Girl said...

It is, Paul! Should've mentioned your interview with him, though. And thanks!

WTBX, that makes infinte more sense. I didn't really get what it had to with anything, because everything else I understood (just the actual Spanish and the French) meant that. Thanks!

Poster Girl said...

Oh, and as a P.S. to myself: the fact that this comes days after the Måns thing just drips with irony. Me and languages clearly don't mix, especially at a level that would let me criticize anyone else ;)