Friday, October 10, 2008

When you spin that record round and round

Responding to an e-mail earlier today, I couldn't help thinking something: 2007 was the year that French popstar Lorie remolded herself into a fabulous popstar. We'd had glimpses of that potential before, but it wasn't until "Je Vais Vite" that she really hit her stride. She's moved from strength to strength since then and into this year, releasing a brilliant album, a second single even better than the first, and continuing to nail the visual aspect in her videos. There are few things more exciting in the world than watching an artist you liked before suddenly kick into some sort of higher gear and reach levels of excellence you'd never even imagined before.

I think, at the rate she's going, 2008 is going to be the year of Elin Lanto becoming a fabulous popstar. She'd been good at various times in the past before, but I wasn't much of a fan of her 2007 Melodifestivalen entry, "Money." With her new record deal, though, she's unstoppable--well, in every way except sales, which should be far better than they are. On the most superficial level, her outfits, promo pictures, and music videos have reached a whole new level, one conveying a serious desire to be a popstar.

Most importantly, though, her music has just become almost unthinkably amazing. The sleek, sexy, somewhat Kylie-like "Speak 'n Spell" (co-written by Linda Sundblad) showed that all those photos she'd teased us with were a sign of a new sound, and a welcome one. "Discotheque" (posted for a very short time only, as we all need to support this new direction she's taking by buying the song, especially if we ever want to hear an album!), her new single, is also capable of inducing Kylie flashbacks as well; as Resa points out, there's something about the song and the video that makes you think back to the Light Years era. It's a little bit disco diva, too, and for some reason makes me think just a little bit of Alcazar, though that could just be because it's got the world "discotheque" in the title. It's fully danceable, complete with spacey background effects, the phrase "bang bang," and those strong electro pulses we got in "Speak 'n Spell," but it's got a big uplifting disco-pop chorus instead of of a slinky dance-pop one. My favorite bit of all, though, may be those backing vocal "oh"s, especially just before the middle 8. As a whole, "Discotheque" is a big, glitzy, catchy (need that even be said?) song about the power of music, unabashed about all that, and, yes, brilliant.

Next up: I may continue the raving trend by writing about an album.

9 comments:

Aaron said...

I hadn't heard of her before - I can't wait to check her out!

Anonymous said...

Dear Poster Girl,
Thank you for your great support of Elin!
An album with Elin is scheduled to be launched in Feb-09. She is still working on songs in varoius studios, as we want this album to be brilliant.
Sadly enough radio in Sweden does not enjoy Discotheque, so now we are also aiming on other territories than Sweden with this song/video.
Remixes on the song is also in progress..

cheers

Roger Adolfsson / manager to Elin Lanto
roger@porterhouse.se

Myfizzypop said...

how amazing is that above comment :) I often think breaking artists prefer this sort of write up than the "promo blogs" that they seek out to feature their music. How ace. I'm listening to discotheque right now. Amazing. I'll take Elin over Lady Blahblah anyday!

Bas said...

gosh Feb 09 is still far away :( Im hoping she will have some succes with Discotheque in Sweden. If not, it might put the release/recording of an album in danger...

Poster Girl said...

Aaron, she's brilliant! You have to get "Speak 'n Spell," too.

Hi, Mr. Adolfsson--and it's an honor to hear from you! Thanks for the news about Elin's album. February is a long way away, but if the songs so far are anything to go by, it'll be worth the wait (as well as worth the wait if it gives her time to build up some sort of following in other countries). Remixes are great news. I really wish the best for her--she, you, and everyone involved are on the top of your game.

It is amazing! Instant love.

Bas, as the comment above gets at, Swedish radio so far hasn't been too friendly to Elin's new material. I know "Speak 'n Spell" was on one of Spain's big summer compilation albums much like September's "Satellites" was, so I imagine there was hope for a September-like success there (that might even have worked as a catalyst for success elsewhere). I hope she'll find it in some country--I love Sweden and the radio there is fantastic, but they can be really frustrating in what they choose not to play sometimes.

Mike said...

Wow! What a fantastic track! I loved Speak N Spell but this is even more fabulous!!!

Poster Girl said...

Mike, I was wondering what you'd think of it--I'm thrilled you love it!

Yuяi said...

Speak N Spell was fantastic, but Discotheque is even better!! So it's only available as a CD5 right now? Can we snap it up as a mp3 somewhere?

Poster Girl said...

Yup! I'll mention it in a post when it goes on sale digitally...though even then I imagine it won't be the easiest thing for international listeners to buy, but I'll definitely include instructions if it shows up at one of the stores we can use.