A few bits of news I mentioned on Twitter that I feel bear repeating over here:Darin's new album finally--finally!--comes out August 25. Nearly a perfect birthday present. The more time that passes, the more time I'm inclined to think "You're Out Of My Life" is my favorite Melodifestival entry from this year, though that's not to say I would have wanted it to win. I realize that it's just a big sparkly '80s adult contemporary power ballad, but THAT'S WHY I LOVE IT. More songs that channel this style, please, Misters Nilsson and Janson.
As a brief recap, songs from this era include Darin's cover of Coldplay's "Viva La Vida;" "You're Out Of My Life;" "Drowning," another Tony Nilsson/Henrik Janson song which we've heard Darin working on in studio (it sounds very much in keeping with "You're Out Of My Life," which I love); and "Only You Can Save Me," which he's performed live acoustically (the melody sounds lovely) and with more accompaniment. It could be premature to judge based on only a few songs, but we've yet to hear anything of the uptempo urban pop variety, so this could be pretty different from Flashback. Hopefully there will be at least a few songs that leave you wanting to dance; he has mentioned an uptempo song written by Tony and Henrik at least once. EDIT: at least one Swedish source reports his next single will be called "Lovekiller" and is released to radios soon. That would be an unfortunate coincidence given the release of the Style single of the same name, so I want to verify that there wasn't just some confusion on the part of the journalist before I say that that fact is 100% certain. Stay tuned... Edit 2: just confirmed that Tony Nilsson did write a song for Darin called "Love Killer," so the news about that being a single and at radios shortly must be true. Maybe it's that aforementioned uptempo song.
Ola's new single, "Overdrive," comes out this Wednesday. The digital single will include two additional new songs from his upcoming album, though he's once again tried to emphasize the album being varied in sound and that these songs don't represent it. I'm worried about "Overdrive," to be honest, but I'll be keeping an ear out regardless.
I feel as if I read this somewhere else a while ago, but since today's such a summery day, here's the possibly old news anyway: Timoteij's new single looks to be "Högt Över Ängarna," which is a choice I'm pretty happy about. Längtan has other options, sure, but the song is still great sugary girly pop.
6 comments:
OH MY!!!! - DARIN!!! - Bring it ON!!
ooo can't wait for new Darin. I love both his non-album tracks and though YOOML was finest in it's original ballad form, the remixes weren't bad either!! Anywhere I can hear the new Ola single yet?!
Power Ballad = A heavy metal ballad.
Darin's song = Just a ballad.
Aaron, having a date is a relief. I hope it's worth the wait.
Not that I know of yet, Paul, but I'll let you know when I hear something.
Hey Erin! I know that's the traditional meaning of "power ballad," but what I was trying to evoke by adding in the "adult contemporary" factor was a certain sub-genre of music at the time (as well as differentiate "You're Out Of My Life" from Darin ballads like "Homeless"). Plus, I'd argue that you don't hear much of the heavy metal in many songs we think of as power ballads (that's kind of what makes them so distinct from the groups' usual output), nor does a group have to be heavy metal to make a power ballad--just rock, really. The guitars are so subdued in, say, REO Speedwagon's "Can't Fight This Feeling," so low in the production mix, that I'd easily put "You're Out Of My Life" in whatever category of music you want to put that song in. Darin's not a rocker, but this song could easily have been a ballad released by a rock group having a big, but less raging-guitar-fueled, ballad moment. It is true, though, that when I wrote that description, I was thinking more of John Waite's "Missing You" (which I don't think of as a pure power ballad, hence the AC reference) than, say, Poison's "Every Rose Has Its Thorn," but now that I'm writing this, I think the REO Speedwagon/Foreigner (in "I Want To Know What Love Is") reference is more apt, and I certainly think of those as power ballads.
Great news here about the new Darin album! Also very great to have you back (I know I'm a bit late with that, but I'm glad you are representing Sweden in "teh blogs" again!)
Thanks :) Well, it's not like I can expect people to sit around checking the site every day when I disappear for months--I'll be lucky if people find out after a while that I'm back.
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