Never you fear

I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Swedish dance outfit's male-vocaled and UK-released 2005 single "I'll Be Ready" is based on a sample taken from the theme song to Baywatch, but even without knowing that, I think I'd think it sounded like summer. I guess I do have a pretty high tolerance for--or, maybe more accurately, when it's done really well, total love of that type of song that everyone seemed to try to cash in on after the success of Eric Prydz's "Call On Me": that big swooshy dance-pop sound based primarily around an '80's song. Still, resisting this big giant piece of upbeat cheese seems like a futile task that's not worth attempting to begin with--it's just so fun. I guess you could say it sounds like what I'd like my summers to feel like.

To buy Sunblock's 2006 album I'll Be Ready, go here (physical) or here (digital).

Next up: umm...well, I'm actually going to visit relatives for a few days and I'll be coming back Wednesday or Thursday; I'm not sure if there'll be Internet access there, but rest assured that this is just a couple of days, not another disappearance. After that (or during that, depending on the situation), maybe that Danish song or some actual '80's stuff.

It's with you that I belong

Posted for a very short time only...

I still genuinely think this is easily one of the year's best songs. I'm not sure that I can add much to my previous post about it, so instead I'll resort to reiterating in a fashion:

Mid-tempo beat kind of like Diddy's "Last Night," the sort of thing that feels like it could be pounded against a wall

+

Lush instrumentation (guitars [but not of the guitar-pop sort], strings) filling it out so it doesn't seem so harsh or inaccessible

+

Divine middle 8--emotion at its best without being overdone or taking away from the power of the song's melody

+

The great verse and bridge, and how they flow into each other and then the chorus

+

That great pop melody in the chorus

+

The slightly more ad-libby version of the chorus at the end

+

The lyrics--the sort that fit the music so perfectly, that seem so meaningful whether or not they actually are ("and now my heart's gone cold and the one who brings it back...is you")

= (apparently)

Sheer brilliance, a pop song that's gorgeous and full and catchy and with just the right amount of emotion, of longing and begging and melancholy and hope. Saying this so early and without radio bombardment to prove it really is of lasting appeal is always a little scary, but I think there's every chance this will go down as at least a personal pop classic. I've yet to come anywhere close to overplaying it, which is saying something, given how often I've played it.

Buy it here (digital) and please, please do--there's absolutely no guarantee of this song getting the success it deserves and I'm really worried about how well it'll do for her. The album is out in November of this year, apparently.

Next up: maybe something Danish.

No matter if I go left or right

Boy, have I missed the blogging world.

For someone whose previous out-of-the-U.S. experience had consisted of a few weeks in Costa Rica and a few trips to Canada (which barely counts, not because Canada's the same as the U.S. but because when I can get to it in about an hour--quicker than I can get to most other states besides Michigan--it's not exactly far away), the past half a year or so has been pretty amazing: four and a half months living in Sweden (cough--did I not mention that properly here?) and then following that up with random traveling around Europe itself, with the most time being spent in Germany, Croatia, and Slovenia. The post-Sweden stuff has been kind of shockingly music purchase-light, but the approximately 50 million CDs I bought in Sweden makes up for it. Toss in a quick jaunt to Orlando afterwards (it's where my older brother lives), and, along with the fact that in Europe I often wasn't sure where I would be in a few days, you've got the best I can offer as an explanation for disappearing for so long.

Anyway, as I mentioned below, I'm totally and completely out of the music loop--I haven't been able to follow anything that's been going on for more than the past month. What's fantastic? What's happening? All I know is that I'm freaking out and shouting "Oh my gosh, I love this song!" and turning up the volume every time Chris Brown's "Forever" comes on the radio and "We're so going to see this movie" every time the preview for the movie version of Mamma Mia comes on, though to be fair that's half just to drive everyone who doesn't want to see it crazy by reminding them that they will get dragged along. The best I can offer up at the moment is a perpetual pop classic which has absolutely nothing to do with anything but I adore and am going to take an excuse to post anyway (album available for purchase here [physical] or here [digital]).

Most importantly, though, I've missed everyone. Really. More cheesy amazing pop coming your way soon.

Me, you, and the dance floor

With full apologies for disappearing for a month (blame it on one set of travels--travels that I don't want to call once in a lifetime because I'm determined to go back, but travels that were definitely first in a lifetime for me--unexpectedly overlapping into another)...I'm back, back to a world where I'm hearing Mariah's "I'll Be Lovin' You Long Time" on the radio (and David Cook's Idol winner song?), where I can finally watch Burn Notice and Doctor Who and So You Think You Can Dance, where iTunes seems to have doubled its country list, and where I have absolutely no idea what's going on in the music scene, international or here in the U.S. Proper post coming later today.

(I promise.)