Sunday, March 08, 2009

Mijn beeld van liefde is zo vaak kapot gemaakt

Why didn't anyone tell me Dutch singer Jim had a new single out?



Boy, I love his voice. If you're not already familiar with Jim or haven't been won over by his previous work, "Door Jou" isn't the place to start, but I really like it; uplifting gentle pop-rock is a subgenre I have a lot of patience for, and Jim did it nearly unbeatably with "Fenomeen," a track from his last album which was one of my absolute favorite songs of the year it was released. I'd be thrilled if the album from which "Door Jou" comes ends up featuring some electro-pop edge like the also fantastic "Altijd" from that album, too. If I'm speaking of Jim songs I love, there's at least one more that I can't leave out: his 2003 debut single "Tell Her," a precious (gasp!) ballad that owes much of its emotional edge to that voice of Jim's. Watch him perform it while looking almost unreasonably pretty below.



Though I enjoy "Door Jou," I'm pretty sure I could tell you how it came about: Jim's people saw the unbelievable success Dutch singer Jeroen van der Boom had with his cover of David Bisbal's "Silencio" and went out and found another track written by Colombian hitmaker Kike Santander. I say "unbelievable" not for any reasons related to the song itself--I adored "Silencio," a 2006 single from David's most recent studio album and, though less dancey, a worthy successor to songwriter Kike and David's earlier hits together like "Ave María" and "Bulería"--but because I'm under the impression that Jeroen somehow ended up gaining a lot of credibility with his cover of it. Anyway, the result here is a cover of Cristian Castro's "Azul," but in this case, unlike with David and Jeroen, I like the cover version a lot more; I've never loved "Azul" as much as I wanted to and, in addition to the advantage of Jim's voice, the Dutch language lyrics just feel as if they fill out the vocal part of the song more completely to me.

Jim's latest single "Door Jou" can be purchased from all countries' iTunes stores here (digital).

In other news about male European singers who took second in the first season of Idol in their countries to some other male singer, it looks like Darin is properly releasing the anti-bullying song "What If" as his next single. It's been known for a while now that he filmed a video for the song, but I just always figured it was a tie-in with some campaign or something; now, though, "What If" is officially listed on the singles release list.

Next up: maybe that '80's Danish song, Swedish pop-rock, or Swedish/Finnish dance.

5 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

oh this song is very pretty. not "oh my gah amazaing" but very pretty, like Jim. I particularly like the start of the video where he is dressing himself, although now i feel like an old perv for writing that.

I am semi pleased with Darin's new single choice, though he must release roadtrip at some point. I hear his album still isn't flying off the shelves :(

kevin (ru) said...

What a lovely song, thanks! Long live Dutch pop!
My previous favorite by Jim was "This love is real".

Bas said...

aaaaaaaaaaaah Jim (L) Gosh I love his new single! Can not wait for him to release his next album. I still remember seeing him performing on Dutch Idols. He has grown so much since then (in a lot of ways). He should be representing our country in Eurovision next year :)

Anonymous said...

It's always entertaining to see a foreign-language music video shot in and around my home town. Malibu, the 3rd St. bridge, Joshua Tree, I guess after years of movies and tv the sights of LA belong to the world now...

Poster Girl said...

Paul, don't worry, he's twenty-one in the "Door jou" video, so fully OK ;) Yeah, poor Darin's album still isn't doing well, or at least as well as it should be :(

Kevin, that's another great song of his! I almost mentioned it and probably should have.

Bas, me too, me too, and me neither! Ooo, interesting idea about Eurovision...

Len, maybe you're used to it living where you do, but it seems like it must be such a surreal experience! Fun, though, to spot local landmarks.