Saturday, January 24, 2009

#24 Agnes, "Release Me"



Release me
'Cause I'm not able to
Convince myself
That I'm better off without you


(If there is one Swedish song on this list that I beg all of you to listen to, even if you're not a Swede pop addict like me, it's this one.)

If in 2008 Ani Lorak was the queen of fierce voguing disco and Lady GaGa carved out a niche for herself with sleazy dirty disco, it's clear from its opening strings that Agnes's "Release Me" is disco whose key descriptor is joy. Agnes claims she knows she shouldn't be in this relationship, but she can't help herself, and neither can we--the joy exuded by "Release Me" is infectious, strong enough to make you feel like it's celebrating everything good about pop and life itself. As the second single from her third album, the Swedish Idol winner chose this breezy modern disco track with a chorus that eschews frantic dance mania for what feels like...well, release. The very definition of a feel good danceable pop track, "Release Me" is swoony, classy, made-for-everyone music. If Agnes can keep this level of track up, she'll have become a top-class popstar.

Find it on: Dance Love Pop

3 comments:

Robpop said...

Release Me was amazing. Amazing. It is why I write a pop blog. Strings, big dramatic lyrics, dance beats, amazing vocals, gloriously over the top backing vocals in both the chorus and verse("oh ah!"), a middle 8 of epic proportions and....the stunning ending. Out of this world!

Release Me is an unrelenting pop song like no other of 2008.

Poster Girl said...

"Why I write a pop blog"--that's it, exactly. It's the sort of song I keep forcing upon everyone and want everyone I know to listen to. That I'll champion forever and ever. I'm hoping, so hoping, that she's got another masterpiece like this in store for us for some weeks from now.

Aaron said...

Oh Epic!!!!! - If there's a way to make everybody listen to one song - and one song only - It'd be this one...

I thought this would have been higher!