Sunday, April 13, 2008

Give me more of the attraction

A random Ola update:

I knew his second album, Good Enough, was going to be re-released with his Melodifestival track "Love In Stereo" added on, but now I'm getting the impression we're getting more than that--is that right? Reworkings/remixings of (some of?) the original tracks as well as at least one entirely new song. I'm really not sure on that, though; I'd welcome clarification.

This is kind of old news at this point, but I was fascinated to read that (while most of the gossip about "Hero" centered around Charlotte and Måns) apparently "Hero" was actually written for Ola; he turned it down (he wanted a song that was in keeping with the "80's feel" of his album) and the writers then decided it suited a female voice better anyway, Fredrik Kempe suggested Charlotte Perrelli, and she fell for the song. That's not based on any talking with people who would actually know, though, just on this article (note: not my scan!), but since that information actually comes from Bobby Ljunggren, that must be what happened. Do you know...I LOVE "Hero," but I LOVE "Love In Stereo" as well--heaven help me if I do another end up year ranking because I really don't know how I'm going to rank my favorite Melodifestival tracks. At any rate, I don't think he would have won with "Hero" anyway, but I love getting these little flashes of insight into the behind the scenes side of Melodifestivalen.

Moving away from Ola, I have to thank Baszjuh for alerting me to the fact that Brolle's new album is (like Sanna's) out this coming week, a fact that I somehow managed to not pick up on despite Brolle's name being all over the Swedish papers recently and actually having seen the cover of the album. Which looks like this, since we're speaking of it:



I love it. In a way I have not loved an album cover in a long time. I'm still loving "Solo I Stockholm" too--especially that GIANT climatic note near the end, which I literally can't get enough of--and have been really enjoying his debut album since I picked it up, so I'll definitely be buying Ett Hjärta Som Glöder Som En Gång Brann when it comes out. The tracklisting:

1.) Solo I Stockholm
2.) Världens Hörn
3.) Faller Du (elsewhere listed as "Faller Du Faller Jag")
4.) Är Det Mig Du Gråter För
5.) Söt Sak
6.) Mexiko (a type-o, maybe?)
7.) Det Är Hon
8.) Vaken Igen
9.) En Sång För Dom
10.) Tillsammans
11.) Nu
12.) Sång För Dom (Bonus Track/Acoustic Version)

I know this isn't going to be an album for everyone, though; you can listen to preview clips of it here if you're wondering about it.

In other Brolle news, he was on Så ska det låta recently, teamed up with Linda Bengtzing...but in terms of him, I like his performance of "Suspicious Minds" on the same program but from 2006 more, so that's what I'm embedding.



Oh fine, here's a bit of Linda having fun singing "We're Not Gonna Take It"...



...and a Brolle-centric take on "Johnny B Goode."

6 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

Seeing as I am just getting into Ola in a rather big way, a rerelease of his second album would be most appreciated. Love in Stereo is growing on me in a huge way. PS i really like Brolle's album cover too, there is something so instant and unstaged about it, and kind of unihibited and a lack of vanity too. Very human. I will be disappointed but probably not surprised to learn that the shot took hours to set up :P

Poster Girl said...

Oh, Paul, I love your comments :D Never go away!

I ADORE "Love In Stereo," so I'm very happy to hear that!

Ha ha...given how photoshoots work, probably. I like your description! I'm not sure why, but I literally cannot WAIT to have that cover in my hands--it's just completely got me. I don't think I can even convey my feelings properly here without you all being able to see my over-the-top gestures ;)

Nick said...

I actually much prefer Love In Stereo to Hero, though they're both of course wonderful. I wish he'd rerelease the second album with half of the songs replaced in favor of tracks that sound more like SOS, Natalie and Can't Get Enough. Those, to me, are the really 80's inspired ones.

BTW, off topic, but have you heard the new Juvelen album? Now that's an amazing record!

Laura (EuropeCrazy) said...

Don't know what I'd do without you! Thanks for all the news about Ola and Brolle, yes I'm loving that album cover too...

Whilst on the subject of "Så Ska Det Låta", I've never seen a full show yet, but what's the rules of the show? I know it's something to do with song lyrics but need more information. And any show with Brolle in it must be good ;)

Anonymous said...

Anyone notice that the live version of Love In Stereo is tons better than the one on the MF album? They were smart to pare it down a bit, it sounds much better, and Ola sounds less restrained on stage.

When we get into the mu-sssic...

Poster Girl said...

That would be fantastic, Nick--I'm really hoping this new track (if we're getting one) is at least in that vein. I haven't yet--I know (courtesy of your site) that it's streaming on his MySpace, but since there are so few tracks and I already know I'm buying it, I'm trying (trying!) to avoid listening to it until I get my copy. I'm glad he's delivered, though!

Aww, thanks! I'm practically turning into a music news aggregator ;) Yeah, it's a game show about song lyrics. There are a bunch of segments. Let me see if I can remember these...

-the band plays the beginning of some song and whoever recognizes it first quickly stands up and sings it (well, the beginning of it) (they do a few of these)
-Six (sometimes five) squares are put up on a board, representing six words making up a lyric from a song; you choose one square to unveil and then sing a song that involves that word; your team keeps going until you sing the song the line is from or until you choose a square that's revealed to be red, at which point it's the other term to sing/choose words. (played several times)
-Six pictures of random things or situations are put up; your team chooses two and sings a song that involves those two pictures; then the other team does two, then you do two again (this game is played twice so each team has an equal chance to earn points)
-The title of a song (which the host identifies as being an English song or a Swedish song, though the clues are in Swedish) is read out, but in some odd way--with soundalike words (say, "Playboy Heffner" [Hugh] for "you") or said in some complicated way or something; either team can guess the song, depending on how "rings in" using the piano first
-back to the put up six hidden words and you have to guess which song they're from game

Your team earns points--team with the most points wins at the end and gets to sing another song together as the credits roll. I think that's it, anyway...

Is it really different? I'll have to go back and watch the live performance!