I saw you dancing and I couldn't get you off my mind

I love it when iTunes' free song(s) of the week is great. And yes, I realize that that's not exactly the most creative way of discovering new songs or artists, but sometimes they're too enjoyable not to share here--Jesse and Joy's "Espacio Sideral" was one such case, and Metro Station's "Shake It" is another. I've not listened to their full album yet, but they've certainly intrigued me enough to consider doing so. Amusingly, one of their key members is Billy Ray Cyrus's son and Miley "Hannah Montana" Cyrus's brother. I imagine he's deliberately trying to separate himself from his father's (and, later on, sister's) music and baggage by going for a supposedly hipper sound, trying to play up the whole underground/alternative thing, but really, ignore that (and ignore their image, which could use some more work)--the following song is just a nice combination of synth-pop and pop-with-strong-guitars. "Seventeen Forever" (which is on their MySpace) is also worth a listen. (Edit: I just found out that the other key member of the band is the brother of another actor who appears on Hannah Montana.)

Shake It--to be honest, if something is catchy, it'll probably win my approval. I also imagine the true hipsters, the market I think they're chasing after, would brush this off as derivative. But that doesn't matter at all--all that matters is how much I want to jump up and down shouting along with the "shake shake, shake shake shake it!" part (preferably surrounded by a bunch of people doing the same thing), or find somewhere playing it at full volume so that I can dance along with it. I have a lot of time for bands mining this vein of sound, this synth pop-with-guitars type of sound, and "Shake It" is a good example of that. They don't sound like what you get American radio, but I'd swap this subgenre of pop-with-guitars for, say, the Panic! at the Disco-type subgenre any day. It's not just that this comes from a family of music I like, though; this is a really good song as well--as I said, catchy, and, though the lyrics are maybe sort of dubious if you think about them, the song is fun and upbeat enough that you really don't do that, except maybe once...and those synths certainly don't hurt its appeal at all either. I love it and can easily see myself being obsessed with it for a while...well, at least for a little bit. Now, let me go listen to how the chorus dissolves into those shouty "shake shake it"s one more time...

To buy Metro Station's debut album Metro Station, go here (physical) or, if you live in the U.S., you can buy it from iTunes.

(By the way, there are five people in this picture, but apparently only four in the band, so I'm guessing it's not the most recent of pictures...if it is actually them.)

Speaking of pop with synthesizers, I've been meaning to mention this for a while now, but I've been in absolute love with Dot Dot Dot's "Take That Away" ever since #1 Hits posted it--definitely go listen to it! It's absolutely fantastic. And they're (shock) American!

Next up: maybe a Swedish singer.