Saturday, March 28, 2009

All the planets are aligning

...and, coming on the heels of the South African pop update, here's an update on Swedish singer Ola.

He's been working on his third album for a few months now. I wouldn't say release is imminent--he's still in the process of recording--but he's talking about artwork with his "people," so it's not a matter of being intangibly distant.

Keep in mind that, with no formalized tracklist, what songs will make it onto the album isn't yet determined. We do know, though, that he's worked with:

Tony Nilsson--if Ola wasn't working with him again, he'd be absolutely insane. If it was up to me, he'd probably do the whole album with Tony. Heck, if it was up to me, everyone would have Tony write for their album.

KeiOne--I think he did Adam Tensta's "80s Baby," which I love, but I'm not familiar with him at all; it looks like he's worked more with R&B in the past.

Ishi--mentioned here recently because of his involvement in Måns Zelmerlöw's new album (he co-wrote "One Minute More," "Find Love, "Saved Again," and "Home"), but more famous for his work with Lazee.

Patric Sarin--I've got a big post dedicated to Patric that's been sitting as a draft for quite some time that I may have to dig out, but rest assured he's done more than his fair share of amazing brilliant songs over the years (Darin's "Desire" and "Insanity" and Margaret Berger's "Samantha," "Will You Remember Me Tomorrow," "Robot Song" are just the tip of the iceberg).

Dilba--Dilba and Ishi worked together for at least one song.

maybe Michael Garvin, who wrote the lyrics for Ola's "S.O.S." and who I wasn't familiar with but apparently also co-wrote "Waiting For Tonight" and Natalia's "I've Only Begun To Fight"

He's also mentioned that, given his record label's (very, very positive) response when he played it to them, there's a good likelihood the lead single will be a song written by Tony Nilsson, KeiOne, and Ola himself. There's a song written by Ishi that Ola thinks is a strong contender to be a later single.

Additionally, he's recorded a song he really likes which he said was called "Lead me the way" (sic).

The Ishi and KeiOne connections (and Patric Sarin, to a lesser degree) make me think maybe Ola's going for a slightly edgier sound, with just a little more of that urban electro sound in it, but I think his record label and management has a good sense of where he gets his popularity from and will keep him very much pop. Plus, Tony Nilsson's involved, and I still have absolute faith in him. I just hope his songs make up more of the album this time around. Ola has established himself as a "summer single" sort of artist and he's got a fall tour coming up, so maybe we could hear a single as early as late this spring.

Apparently in his free time he's been seeing He's Just Not That Into You with Sarah Dawn Finer and talking about the financial crisis with Dr. Alban. The tangled webs of celebrity lives...

8 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

yay. i'm excited for new Ola. though really i'm still getting over the thrill of new Mans, the slightly more than acceptable Kevin Borg album and Erik Hassle. But Ola is ace too :) Oh! And i must dig Danny out again. can't forget his latest so soon.

Robpop said...

Can't wait to read your Sarin piece. His work on the Ninja album is amazing.

Damian said...

Though I've found only 5 songs for me on his last post-MF edition of album I'm excited about next one. By the way about Hassle - I loved his album, now it will always remind sleepy Finnish spring day as I took it with me to the boat to give it listen and I've been listening to it all the way to Sweden.
http://s60.radikal.ru/i170/0903/ae/c51fdd0bdad2.jpg

By the way did you already listened to new BWO's album?
http://www.expressen.se/noje/musik/1.1515776/lyssna-pa-bwo-s-nya-skiva

Poster Girl said...

Kevin didn't take much of my time, but yes, with Erik and Måns, we do have some great solo male-sung Swedish pop keeping us occupied. Ola won't be for a while yet, so don't worry!

Robpop, it absolutely is. I think a lot of the people who loved Margaret Berger might at least enjoy it, even if it isn't quite as dark as where Margaret sometimes goes.

Damian, five songs...that sounds just the number I'd choose! Well, maybe a couple more, if we're talking about the post-MF reedition. It definitely left loads of room for improvement, though. That picture is stunning! It's so...evocative--one look at it and I feel as if I'm there.

Anonymous said...

Exhaustive post, PPG, but you missed the one BURNING question in my mind about dear Ola. PLEASE tell me he has ditched the curly perm look he was sporting at the Swedish Idol finals this year! Everyone I know who saw that was like "WHAT happened (or didn't happen) to his hair?" I read in Aftonbladet that he said he was tired of ironing it straight, but there must be a better look for him than curly almost-Afro.

Len W said...

Oops, I hit the post button too soon. The last anonymous was me...

Damian said...

This picture suited very well "Bump In The Road", "The Thanks I Get" and "Back To Bed" :)

Poster Girl said...

Len, that is THE question. I know he's still got it going on now and he mentioned at some point how pleased his hairdresser was that he'd stopped straightening his hair, but I think (and I'm not sure about this because I didn't really pay attention to the post and can't remember exactly where it was now) he said he'll probably go back to his addiction eventually. He's been flirting with the curly look off and on for a while now--I want to say he showed up at some early '08 awards show with it--so maybe it's just because he's between lead singles and doing more studio work that he's doing this. It's been particularly bad at a few appearances lately--you're right, there's surely a way they could at least manage it better.

I can just imagine it, Damian...