Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Music is the consequence of love

If you know Swedish artist Maria Marcus, it's probably for her lovely melodic pop songs like "Music Is" and "Why (You Confuse My Mind)" or perhaps her duet with Brinck, Denmark's representative to this year's Eurovision. Who knew that lurking underneath that (very good) singer-songwriter-style exterior was someone equally capable of producing biting dance-pop? I certainly wouldn't have guessed it.

Sadly, it seems as if Maria has for the moment set aside her own recording career in favor of writing and producing for other artists. If we're looking for the silver lining, though, it's that demos like "Alone With The Music" and "Everytime" (which aren't new) are pretty great, especially for demos. As far as I can tell, Maria sings both (though I'm not entirely positive about "Alone With The Music"), though I presume the ultimate plan is for them to go to another artist. "Alone With The Music" doesn't put quite as much weight in its chorus vocal melody as, say, past work from Maria like "Music Is," but it helps make up for it that with its heavy electronic pulses and the riffs that crop up. The verses also wisely have a more distinctive melody and, though keeping the genre of the chorus, take a few steps back so that chorus still has something to build up to . The end result may be slightly style over substance and I'll freely admit to having a predisposition towards anything with this sort of electro-dance-pop production, but it's still more than solid work from Maria.

"Everytime" is slightly less hard in its sound, but it's just about as catchy.

Some of Maria's work that doesn't feature her singing is just as good. She's apparently one of the main songwriters working with Freja, an act Don't Stop The Pop, always ahead of the curve, wrote about a year ago. "Baby Run Run" (which I'm guessing is co-written by Maria, but I'm not certain of that) is also good, albeit on the demo-y side in some ways; it's kind of like the beat of Katy Perry's "Hot 'n Cold" (though not that great, but little is) but with a smoother, more traditional pop-rock vocal part in the chorus. "Give It Up," which I'm not sure who sings, is more pop than "Everytime" or "Alone With The Music" but might have the best melody out of all this songs.

In case you missed Maria's earlier work, here's the beautiful pop song "Music Is," which I think should appeal to those beyond the hardcore fans of über-poppy Swedish music.



You can't buy any of the songs I've posted, but you can purchase Maria's single "Music Is" here (digital).

Next up: maybe a conglomeration post.

6 comments:

John said...

It's cute. If this is her early in a career, hopefully it just evolves from there.

Myfizzypop said...

no no no no no! You can't get me into someone and then tell me they are concentrating more on writing and producing after i decide i like them. To be fair to you, that was alerted fairly early on in the post ;)

Damian said...

WOW! This girl seems to have SO MUCH great stuff and she never released album??? o_O
I like "I Don't Know", "In The End I Start", "Alone With The Music" so much! Other songs are very very pleasant and beautiful too, it's shame she never became quite popular.

I'm pretty sure you've heard it but just wanted to ask do you like new RedOne's hit - Flipsyde - "When It Was Good"? I think it's one of his greatest hits ever) Love it, love it, love it!!!

Bat For Lashes - "Daniel" and Calvin Harris - "I'm Not Alone" are another two great tracks I just have found :)

Damian said...

I like new Moby's single also, seems like I've got the crisis, no?

Poster Girl said...

John, "Music Is" was pretty early in her career. "Cute" is a good word for it.

I'm sorry, Paul ;) I think she decided she was one of those artists more comfortable behind the scenes...which I can understand, even if it's sad.

"In The End I Started" really clicks with me for some reason I've never quite been able to explain--it's very radio-sounding but there's something more to it than that. Thank goodness you're finding new music to love! It feels like April is a slow month so far for me. I do love Calvin Harris's new single and really liked "Daniel" but haven't bought it yet and so haven't played it enough to let it fully sink in--thanks for the reminder about it because I get the impression it's got something very special about it. I haven't heard Moby's but I'll go look it up. You're not the first person to really love "When It Was Good"--it was OK for me, but I'm wondering if I'm going to have a sudden epiphany about it/really fall for it once I hear it a few more times.

Marco said...

Hi, can you please reup Everytime by Maria Marcus??
Many thanx!!!!
She deserves great success...