She's a juvenile scam, never was a quitter

The most amusing thing I've seen in the past 24 hours:



(Taken from one of those TV shows where a singing celebrity/coach is paired with a celebrity not known for singing).

Oh Anthony. I do hope you're taking notes from this song and all those covers you've been doing at gigs lately for your next (entirely hypothetical) album. Of course, I'm still waiting for your dance-pop opus, so that'd do nicely too.

Then again, do you know who else performed "The Look" on a reality TV show?

Anthony to record "Cara Mia" Mark III, please!

Who I am depends on what I've done

Anwar Robinson (finalist on some season of one of the seasons of American Idol) and Heinz Winckler (winner of the first season of Idols in South Africa; he's done some really good stuff over the years) are apparently both going to be appearing in Rent. Following the news that Anthony Callea is appearing in it (not with them--although theoretically they could do a tour together, since Anwar is playing Tom, Anthony's playing Mark, and Heinz is playing Roger), is this the thing for Idols to do now? I mean, I've always known them to do musicals, but what's with the sudden Rent mania?

I suppose if you've been dying to see Heinz Winckler live, now's your chance (if you live in the U.S.)--the tour starts in Pennsylvania this October. I'm not planning on going, though it's mildly tempting if only to pretend to be a crazed fan (I really like Heinz, but I wouldn't say I'm an intense fan)--I can't imagine too many people here have all three of his albums (and a German single!) and I've never gotten the chance to be truly fangirly live, and I should probably practice before seeing someone I'd actually want to be fangirly about.

Obviously, though, Heinz appearing in Rent comes nowhere near rivaling second season South African Idols' finalist Jacques Terre'blanche's musical career--which, as far as I know, just consists of starring in a musical version of Debbie Does Dallas that was produced by and featuring Caprice, but let's face it, no one's ever going to top that in terms of musical career, are they? There's no point in even trying.

Sometimes things just ain't workin'

Apparently Anthony Callea, Nikki Webster, and Shane "Courtney Act" Jenek are all appearing in Rent together.

I have no idea what to begin to make of this.

On the other hand, it does put Anthony only a few steps away from releasing the dance pop album I've been clamoring for for ages--move on to Rent in the UK, work with its creators, and voila! Songs like "Wanna Be The One," "Into Your Heart," the Tim Dawes remix of "Rain," and his cover of "Angel"...only better, one can hope. I'd still rather have him work with whoever did the Reactor remix of Kate DeAraugo's "Faded" or the Jewels & Stone folks, who remixed Stephanie McIntosh's "Mistake"--they're both Australian! Or we could ship him off to Sweden and have him work with the von der Burgs (September and Danny, among others--listen to a megamix and be impressed at how many songs you love they've been associated with)! C'mon, let it happen...

I bet you don't, don't even know my favorite song

Nooo!

The worst news I've heard all day:

"The third album may be more ballad-oriented."

-Anthony Callea in an interview with the Herald Sun (talking to Cameron Adams)

?!?!?!

OK, I will grant that "Rain" is a good song and I even enjoy a couple of the other ballads from his debut album, but he can't do that! Not that I'm surprised, really, but still. Sigh. I do love him in pop-rock mode (I really need to post "Almost" or "Stranded" at some point), but I still harbor some faint hopes of him doing more dance-pop someday...c'mon, Anthony, you like Kylie Minogue's music and you've already teased us with "Into Your Heart," "Wanna Be The One" and your cover of "Angel." Or, failing that, keep making pop-rock and get Jewels & Stone to remix your singles like they did for fellow Australian Stephanie McIntosh's "Mistake" or get a Kate DeAraugo "Faded (Reactor Mix)" equivalent.

I can dream, right?

I can see that you got other plans for tonight, but I don't really care

Look, it's a non-Eurovision post!

Do you know the Australian show It Takes Two? It's their version of the UK show Just The Two Of Us; there was also a US version called Celebrity Duets--Carlton from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air won it, with Lucy Lawless (Xena) coming in second. Anyhow, the premise is that celebrities not known for singing are teamed up with professional singers and then compete against each other in a singing contest. Guy Sebastian, winner of the first season of Australian Idol, was one of the professional singers in season one and, with his partner, took second.

Well, it's back. And guess what former Australian Idol contestant is in it this time?

Yup, Anthony Callea. He's teamed up with radio presenter Jo Stanley.

As a warning, Samuel HotStuff Files probably won't want to watch the following video, as he'd probably want to throw things across the room; hearing a non-singer singing a song he loves probably isn't up his alley.

Anyhow, their first performance was of the Veronicas' song "4Ever." Keep in mind that the point is to feature the non-singer, so there's not too much of Anthony singing. Still, I know it's heresy to say it, but...based on what you hear here, I'd really love to hear his whole version of this, by himself. Future b-side? It'll never happen, but it'd be nice.



(Only about the first 1:45 is singing.)

Plus, it looks like he's really having fun, which is a good thing.

I am at the crossroads again

Continuing the grand tradition of being behind in the news, I am only able to bring you this because of the amazing blog You Don't Know Pop (which you all should be reading by now).


It really is a shame that he probably didn't have too much choice about this, after the radio thing, and I think he is correct in saying that many people won't be surprised--but it was still his choice and that's no less reason for this to have been a difficult decision; there are other popstars who have remained silent or continued to deny reports for years.

Good for you, Anthony.

(Screencap from the Herald Sun here, but the much better article is from the Daily Telegraph here.)

Everyone should go immediately download the Tim Dawes remix of "Rain" that I have been looking for for ages and am beyond ecstatic to finally have. Thanks so much, Troy!

You're the sun, you're the moon, you're the universe I'm falling into

Oh no...Anthony Callea's newest single, "Addicted To You," debuted at #19 in the charts today. I just don't understand...I'd promised myself I was going to avoid writing about him for a while and hold off on posting more album songs, but I just have to break one of those promises. I'm worried about him, though I know I shouldn't be--his album has sold gold, which, though far behind his debut album (two times platinum), means he's far from a struggling artist. My copy of the "Addicted To You" single hasn't arrived yet, so I can't check the writing credits (which I'm interested to see), but I still want to write about one of the b-sides from it. My thoughts haven't coalesced into something coherent yet, but I'm too eager to share it to wait any longer.

(Note: this song is only going to be up for a few days at most; even though Australia's chart seems to be more a "start at the highest you'll get" sort of chart than the U.S. one, the single is still very new.)

Try (link removed)--things I love about this song:

• the strings
• the backing beat (not the cymbalish thing in the chorus)
• the strings
• the end of the chorus--the beginning is nice, especially because it's not overwhelming you with the guitars (a nice change), though not mind-blowing, but the best part is "I don't have to tryyyy," where the guitars drop out and something about how Anthony's singing that word just works
  
• the piano
• the verses--I love the flow of the words (I might not be fond of all the lyrics themselves--shouldn't it be "putty in your hands," not "water in your hands," if we're talking about being remade? And "you make me weak at the knees/I would do anything for you/you don't have to say please" isn't the strongest of lines, but with the exception of that part, everything--even the water line--just sounds good)
  
• the strings! They're nothing complicated, but they make this song with their punctuation of the verses

Oh, and Anthony's voice is, of course, a given.

Anthony fuses the classical half of the album with the pop-rock half here, something which he does to some degree on other songs, but I think this song is starting to really hint at where he could go in the future--it's a great song as is, but possibly more importantly it hints at an interesting direction he could take, if he pushes a little further (though I still maintain I'm hoping for a "Wanna Be The One"-esque album--bring on the danceable pop!). As much as I enjoy the rock-out songs, not only is it nice to mix it up, the sort of guitars he generally uses can sometimes drown out the orchestral strings. There's a word that perfectly describes the aura of this song, but it's escaping me at the moment; suffice to say that "Try" is catchy, distinctive, and a little bit poignant.

Go support the boy--buy Anthony Callea's single "Addicted To You" here (physical). Please? You'll get this song, the single mix of "Addicted To You," and "Meant For Love," previously only available on Australian iTunes, which is also a good song. Think of it as a dual investment--you're supporting 1.) the prevention of Anthony reverting to Prayer duplication mode, and 2.) someone who, though he needs to get some stuff sorted out, and I wish we could get him to work with some of the great songwriters out there (by "great songwriters" I of course mean the people making brilliant, catchy, fun, uptempo pop which pretty much all seems to come from certain parts of Europe nowadays--can we ship Anthony to Sweden? or to the UK circa 2003?), has a lot of potential...it would be a shame to see him fade away.

Next up: the Swedish dance-pop I mentioned yesterday is definitely coming, but that will be in the middle of the week...I think France will be up next.

And I'm allowed to change my mind

It's been a little while since I've done a real news round-up (though I know I've done a lot of "breaking news" sort of posts lately), and there's a lot I'd like to mention, so today will just be some random thoughts and news.

In the "news I should have brought to you yesterday but didn't want to mention" file is information about Gareth Gates's new single. It's confirmed for an April release, and he's also confirmed which song it will be: "Changes." It's the latter that resulted in my hesitation to mention it yesterday. I haven't heard the whole song yet, let alone heard the whole studio version yet, but from what I've heard of the song, I'm not sure about the choice. Well, that's not entirely correct--it would be more correct to say I have an opinion which could be totally wrong, but I'll throw it out there anyway: I see this as the sort of song that might be loved by fans, but isn't a good choice for lead single. Facts about "Changes": it is a ballad. You can't view it as anything else--it's not a Shayne Ward "No Promises" or Anthony Callea "Rain" song that you could maybe make a case for it being something else. I'm trying not to let my own preference for the uptempo influence my analysis of this decision, but that might seep in somewhat, which is why I'm so leery about actually saying much. It's also a very intimate-sounding ballad. Very singer-songwritery sounding. And (I can just hear the screams of derision coming from the PJ Forums already) it's co-written with one of the writers of James Blunt's "You're Beautiful." Ballads can do very well, but I feel as if normally they tend to be catchy, or less..."rambling" isn't the right word...less hushed? More commanding of your attention? As I said, I haven't heard the whole thing, so I could be utterly wrong on this (and I hope I am), but to me it just doesn't feel like the super-strong comeback single he needs. I don't expect anyone to want to download these, but if anyone wants to listen to them, here are a couple of clips (taken from the documentary) of "Changes": longer clip (the song's beginning, I think) and shorter clip (probably leading into the chorus). Anyone else have any thoughts? And be honest--I can take it!

Also, speaking of singles, Sebastian (Karlsson)'s latest single "Words and Violence" (which I wrote about and posted a live version of back in December) is finally availabe to purchase in a physical format, meaning we non-Swedish residents can finally get hold of it. I'm not sure if anyone else has grown as obsessed with this song as me recently, but if you want to, you can buy the single for it here.

No news from Go:Audio (except that they keep redesigning their MySpace), but I just wanted to mention again how great their song "Made Up Stories" (which you can listen to on the aforementioned MySpace) is.

Also on the guitar-pop tip, the Click Five's song "Time Machine" is being used to advertise Orlando--that's lovely, boys, but when do we get a new album? (Rumors say fall 2007, but that's based off of nothing.) Those live performances of some of your new songs are too low quality for me to stand listening to, no matter how intense my withdrawal symptoms get.

What has happened to Veto Silver? According to their MySpace, they still have shows coming up, and it looks as if they've lost and replaced a member, but when are we getting new music?

My reporting that Anthony Callea's single "Addicted To You" would have two new b-sides was wrong--one will be "Meant For Love," previously only available on the Australian iTunes. The other is called "Try," and is, as far as I know, new.

Ever since Kevin recommended Sondre Lerche in the comments, I've fallen in love with him. His upcoming album, Phantom Punch, might be more hipster than what I normally listen to, but it's so much fun...I definitely recommend picking it up when it comes out in early February! I really want to write more about him later, but if I do, Kevin gets all the credit (and huge thanks!) for introducing him to me. In the meantime, if you like well-done music videos, check out the one for his song "Two Way Monogue" (also courtesy of Kevin's recommendation).

I'm a horrible comments lurker, but I do it in hopes of finding new blogs. A couple of blogs new to me: Give Your Ears A Taste Of The Visual and PopMusicWorldWide. I only just found out about PopMusicWorldWide this morning, and I absolutely adore it already; when its creator says "world wide," that's the complete truth. Incredibly thorough, it's already introduced me to artists I'd never heard of before and given me a lot more information about artists I only knew in passing. I only wish I'd known about it sooner. Give it a visit--you'll love it!

Other excellent blogs have relocated: Digital Technique is now at the All New Digital Technique and Aria of Pop is now at Synth Me Spaghetti. Both are top-quality blogs that I adore.

Next up: maybe that band from Germany.

I am at the crossroads again

The news about Anthony Callea's new single got me thinking about his second album again. I really want to do a complete review of it at some point, but for now--since who knows how long it will take me to do that--I thought I'd encourage people to go get the album--because it is worth it--by writing about one of the other songs on it. I've written about Anthony a lot before, and that's mainly because I see him as having a lot of potential. As a brief catch up for anyone who hasn't heard of him before, he took second on the second season of Australian Idol, but has gone on to have more commercial success than the winner, Casey Donovan. On the show, his definitive performance was Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion's "The Prayer," and when he released his cover of it as a single, it became a record best-seller. Unfortunately for me, the fact that single did so well (and granted, his performance on Idol was very good) has, I think, led to his record company or him thinking that the route to continued success is to keep up with songs like that--big, classical-esque ballads. Until the upcoming release of "Addicted To You" as a single, three of his five singles are basically in that vein; of the other two, one was a pop ballad called "Rain"--a very good ballad--and the other was a Latin-sounding mid-tempo called "Hurts So Bad." His most recent album, A New Chapter, sees him trying to follow the Kelly Clarkson route; in between the now-traditional classical-esque ballads are rocky pop songs that a few months have revealed to be pretty enjoyable, and I wouldn't mind him continuing to make some songs like those. Still, I hold out hope that in the future we'll see more uptempo dance-oriented tracks from him (though I'd even take more things like "Rain"); to me, songs like album track "Into Your Heart," b-side "Wanna Be The One," and his pre-Idol cover of Lionel Richie's "Angel" hint that he at least has an interest in songs like that, and show that he could do them well. None of those songs has quite allowed him to fulfill his potential yet, but they're all worth listening to if all you know of Anthony Callea are songs like "The Prayer," "Per Sempre," and "Live For Love."

Perfect Mistake--to me, this song sounds like what would happen if someone decided to make a rock-out pop song using violins instead of guitars (though it's definitely got its guitars, too). I'm not sure about the earnestness of that first line--"Do you run a red light sometimes?" is made to sound like a major confession--but there's something I find gripping about this song. Actually, I think I know what that thing (or the most important something) is: I love the part two-thirds in (the "falling down like an angel" section). It's around there that the song finally breaks loose and reaches its peak (and it's worth sticking around for). I really would have loved to hear more of that in the song, but the rest of it is still good.

I almost posted another song, but there were so many options that I wasn't really sure which to choose (there are some I'm dying to write about, but maybe I'll just incorporate that into the album review). I'll freely admit that there's about half of the album I don't listen to--those big classical ballads, though he does them well, just aren't my thing--but I think of it this way: even on a Darin album, which tend to be short, not all the tracks are keepers, so if A New Chapter gives you seven songs (the album is sixteen tracks, and I do listen to more than seven) you'll actually keep on your iPod, that's not bad. You can buy Anthony Callea's second album, A New Chapter, here (physical). His website also has some approximately one minute clips (albeit very low quality) of all the songs on the album; you can listen to those here (you'll have to click on "AC Album Preview").

Next up: maybe a German band.

I can't sleep

You knew my promise of no guys, no guitars, all Denmark was too good to be true, didn't you? I swear I wasn't planning to, but I'm about to break all three of those rules. Because I'm suffering from a horrible bout of insomnia tonight, let's look at what arrived in my e-mail inbox at 1:50 AM.



Oh, Anthony Callea...just when I thought I had this second album project pinned down, you go and throw a bunch of stuff at me. Let's go in order of discovery.

Your newest single is "Addicted To You"--no new news there, but new news in that it will be released Feb. 3. The b-sides? Two new non-album tracks! Woo!


Plus, I've been very worried about your style lately, and I'm still not sure I've gotten over the haircut yet, but I think this promo picture is pretty good, no? Not awkward or anything--this is promising!

OK, next up--you've got a new video for "Addicted To You." Well, it would be nice if whoever does your promo had gotten the HTML right, but we'll just copy that link and add an "h" in front of the "ttp"...

Watch Anthony Callea's new video for "Addicted To You" here

And suddenly the reason for Anthony's new haircut becomes clear! He's turning into Chris Daughtry. That's the same outfit as in that photograph, isn't it? It somehow seems to not work as well live, but that's OK, let's keep watching.

Still, you know what? He seems to be really having fun, especially near the end, and I quite like the song (it's exponentially better than that Daughtry song); it's even grown on me since I first got the album. Catchy rocky pop...I hope he does well with it. Even if it does mean my chances of another "Wanna Be The One" are getting further and further away.

So, final ruling? It's a single worth buying, especially if you live in Australia, where the singles will count towards the chart. You can get it here, when it eventually shows up as for sale.

(I was listening to A New Chapter while typing this up, and it's aged pretty well; I'm actually really glad this forced me to revisit it, because, the more I'm listening to it, the more I like it. I really need to post up the mini-review I did forever ago, because there are some great tracks I'd love you all to hear.)

Next up: hopefully back to our regularly scheduled program.

This is my floor; you're just dancing on it

You know how iTunes gets celebrities to make up playlists of their favorite songs? Well, guess which Aussie singer they just got to make one...

Anthony Callea's Playlist--An Analysis

Bryan McKnight, "Back At One"--he sang this on Idol--no surprise that he likes it.

TV Rock, "Flaunt It"--I feel like I've heard of them before (maybe from Popalastic or I'm Always Right?), but I don't know if I've ever actually heard one of their songs before. The singer's (well, if he can be called a singer) voice sort of reminds me of the singer in Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy." It's completely unlike anything Anthony sings, but it was probably one of those songs that took over and everyone laughed about but loved.

Christina Aguilera, "Can't Hold Us Down"--is now not a good time for me to confess that I've never heard all of Stripped? I think I've heard this song before, though, and it's all right.

George Benson, "Give Me The Night"--I think I borrowed a George Benson CD from my parents once. That doesn't mean I know anything about him, though.

James Ingram, "How Do You Keep The Music Playing"--don't know this song either. This isn't too exciting so far.

Pussycat Dolls, "Buttons"--yes! I love this song, and I don't care what that says about me. Very pop--let's see if the list improves from here.

Nick Lachey, "What's Left Of Me"--Anthony says: "When I first heard this song, all I remember thinking is 'Why couldn't they write that song for me?'"
Gee, Anthony, if that's the sort of song you want to sing, why wasn't there anything like that on the album?!?

Robbie Williams, "Lovelight"--ooo, we're 3 for 3 for the last 3 songs--this is great as well. Plus, Anthony says "Robbie can just do no wrong lately," which a lot of people would probably disagree with, but it implies that he likes "Rudebox." I approve.

Kelly Clarkson, "Beautiful Disaster"--Anthony says: "Gee, this chick can sing."
No kidding. But he did choose a good non-single from her first album, which is a sort of promising sign in terms of his knowledge of pop.

Justin Timberlake, "SexyBack"--Anthony says: "Trust Justin to bring sexy back onto the scene. He just has too much talent. It's really not fair and should not be allowed."
Meh. "SexyBack" has grown on me, but FutureSex/LoveSounds never grabbed me as an album (though I might love the radio edit of "What Goes Around...Comes Back Around;" I haven't decided yet). So, if he has too much talent, he's an example of someone not channeling it properly (...).

Kylie Minogue, "Fever"--Anthony likes Kylie Minogue! "She is the ultimate female performer" (or it's just a token reference to a popular Australian artist, but I'm going to take it at face value). Anthony, you like "Buttons," Kylie Minogue--give us some sort of storming uptempo dance masterpiece! Or at least call up the folks who did Kate DeAraugo's "Faded" Reactor Mix or Stephanie McIntosh's "Mistake" Jewel & Stone Mix. Look, you even have pop-rocky singles now--that's what both of those songs originally were.

Scissor Sisters, "I Don't Feel Like Dancing"--see, Anthony, we know you really want to be doing fun uptempo poppy songs. I approve of this choice as well.

Augie March, "One Crowded Hour"--I don't know this song, I'm sorry. It sounds meandering (not necessarily a bad thing) and intimate from the preview.

Eskimoe Joe, "Black Fingernails, Red Wine"--OK, I know I've heard their name before, but I've never heard their songs. Sort of rocky--well, it's rock, but it doesn't seem rock-out.

Pink, "U + Ur Hand"--brilliant! I love this song, even if it does sound like the Veronicas' "4ever." Rocky pop that's still fun and poppy. Actually, now that I think of it, I'm sort of surprised there's no Veronicas on this list--I bet there would have been if he'd done it a year ago.

U2, "Beautiful Day"--I'm no U2 expert, but I do like this song of theirs.

James Morrison, "You Give Me Something"--this is the second time I've seen Anthony mention James Morrison; he compared the production on "Now You're Gone" to James Morrison's music. I like this song--not extremely exciting, but a solid ending.

In the end: it's no surprise to learn that Anthony likes sentimental ballad songs. However, though some of the songs he selected could be viewed as classics, there was a surprising lack of truly classical-esque songs. He also chose some rock songs, but the most rock-out of all of the songs was actually a pop song ("U + Ur Hand"), and it was the latter sound he was probably going for on many of the songs on his album. There were also a lot of songs that can't be viewed as anything other than complete pop, and were extremely catchy--I'd love to see some more like this on the next album; ballads, like "Rain," would be great--and we know he likes that style still, given his reaction to "What's Left Of Me"--but I'd also love to see some uptempo songs in the vein of "Into Your Heart" and "Wanna Be The One." Of course, my biases are well-known: from a selfish "what I like most" perspective, if Anthony wants to keep the pop-rock, that's fine, more than fine; I'd just like the other half of the album to be catchier and poppier--some ballads, and some not.

So, anyhow, today you all get the TV Rock song (it's definitely designed for clubs). If you don't like it, blame Anthony Callea.

Flaunt It

To buy TV Rock's album Sunshine City, go here (physical).

Next up: probably another day in Australia, but maybe some cute songs from Denmark.

One day, we'll put all this behind us

Sadly, I only have time for a quick little post today, so essentially this will just be a check-in on some of the popstars I follow. To begin with, though, don't forget to vote for your top 10 pop albums of all time by e-mailing Adem from I'm Always Right at myfavouritepoprecord@gmail.com... well, no, I haven't actually done it myself yet, but I'm going to!

Research (by which I mean bothering to look at the names of the boys in the band and doing one search) that I probably should have done before writing two posts about them reveals that go:audio (or is it Go:Audio?) are the former the Vacancy, which is hugely exciting for me. It does mean, though, that I'm going to do as I promised back when I wrote about the Vacancy and remove the links for their songs. If you haven't listened to the song on their MySpace yet, you absolutely must; I'm still completely in love with it--intoxicated by it, in a way. If they can follow up on this, I may have a triad of current bands representing pop perfection (music perfection).

(Credit for this picture goes here; thank you!)

The ever-amazing Ben Adams has a new song on his MySpace, "I Messed Up." It's one of his laid-back jazzy numbers...which, to be honest, aren't my favorite of his songs; I much prefer songs like "Get Off My Girl." However, you can still hear the excellent "Crash and Burn." I really hope he gets to release an album! (You can buy his debut single, "Sorry," and the top-quality B-side "Delicious" here.)

The new Anthony Callea single will be "Addicted to You," one of the rocky, more uptempo songs on his album--I don't think it's the best of those songs, but I do think it's good, and hope it does well; if it doesn't, I fear a reversion to ballads all the time. Actually, it's just important that it does well, period. Is there a universal rule that all the Idol grads I support have to stop selling as well as they used to as soon as I start supporting them? Watch out, Will Young--I didn't really start appreciating you until around the time of release for "Who Am I," and that was your lowest charting single yet...

Jesse McCartney's new single will be "Just So You Know." The video for it has just come out, and it features shameless cellphone product placement in the vein of most Rihanna videos...but then again, he might need all the money he can get given this album's performance so far, and even the Click Five have some cell phone placement in their videos, so I can't be too harsh on him. The video's nothing revolutionary--Jesse falling in love with another boy's girlfriend--but it does make me like the song more, I suppose; I still see "Just So You Know" as one of the album's middling tracks, though. Then again, my favorite album track, "Daddy's Little Girl," probably wouldn't work as a single (and my sometimes-overall-favorite, and maybe the album's best song, "Running Away"--which really is such a good song--is only a bonus track).

Next up: that plea to buy a single.

If you kiss me now, I know you'll fool me again

Do you know what album arrived in the mail today, more than a week before I was expecting it? A New Chapter! My feelings are a bit all over the place about it before even listening to it, but I won't be writing about it until the Christmas special is over at the earliest.

Today's song, like yesterday's, comes from a compilation album--this time, a holiday album put together by Rosie O'Donnell. Many of the songs on the album feature a famous singer and her; however, there are some that don't include her, and this is one of them. It's also a song most people have probably heard covered dozens of times (though this version of the song was the first version I ever heard of it): Wham's "Last Christmas." However, before you run away at the thought of another "Last Christmas" cover, let me point out one more thing: Darren Hayes is singing it.

Last Christmas--I think a lot of people might even have heard this particular cover already, but it's so good that it's worth sharing anyhow. In fact, I like it so much that, despite my leeriness of covers, I haven't even bothered to seek out the original in its entirety yet. That does limit by ability to compare and contrast, and to know how much Darren himself brings to the song, but I have a feeling it's a good deal. I know this is an overused word, but there's the tiniest bit of something ethereal about it--it just has this slightly floating feeling, both in instrumentation (though occasionally a certain type of electronic beep occurs that does pin it back down) and in Darren's singing. It's a bit like "Like It Or Not" with more energy and a tad more cuteness, or maybe a slightly more mysterious version of "Miss You."

To buy A Rosie Christmas, go here (physical) or here (digital; only valid for U.S. residents).

Next up: possibly something horribly stereotypical.

What a day, what a day, what a day

This blog seems to be getting more and more random--today will be another conglomeration of news updates and links. I'll try to go through a series of more planned posts after this, though.

The Click Five, who I raved about back in early September, have just finished opening for the McFly tour--I'm sure they did an amazing job, as not only do they have phenomenally good songs, they are also really entertaining live. Their debut album Greetings From Imrie House, when it was released in the U.S., was incredibly good; however, the UK version of their album is even better, practically perfect, though there's only been one small change: "Lies" has been replaced by their brilliant cover of "I Think We're Alone Now." If you haven't already bought it, there's no better time than now; you're missing out on one of the best and most fun albums out there. I am a little worried about their decision to star in the upcoming Christy Carlson Romano movie Taking 5, though.

I don't know what I can do to convince you to go watch Pacific Avenue's Internet TV show, but you have to see it. The episodes are pretty lengthy (20 minutes, roughly), so I haven't made it through all of them, but they are really funny. Not only do Pacific Avenue have a hilarious show (with good music in it), their own music is so classic boyband (but improved/updated/etc. etc. I'm sure their promo materials would say) that I can barely stand it (there may be about a million layered vocals in it, but I actually really like the effect)--in a good (great) way. Go watch their TV show and look at their MySpace--it's worth it.

Speaking of Pacific Avenue, a commenter provided a link to his/her (sorry! I think "his," based on some clips in the show) blog with photos of Pacific Avenue--it is definitely worth a look, not only because I can't get enough of these guys right now, but also because the photos themselves are great--the blog's pretty new, but pop over there and take a look if you get a chance! If the photographer doesn't mind, I'd love to use their photos in future posts about Pacific Avenue--with full credit and citation/links, of course :)

Jim Verraros's official website has been redesigned--very professional-looking, new photos, blah blah blah...when's the new album coming out? Oh...spring 2007--maybe you should say that on the front page and not on the page for the not-yet-open store.

A lot of you probably aren't following Australian Idol, but you really should be. It's worth paying attention to just so you can understand what Scott To Be Certain and CFB Goes Pop are talking about. Scott To Be Certain is, as always, incredibly witty. CFB has an Idol "novel" that you absolutely must read--watch the show, or just read their recaps, so that you can understand the jokes in the novel because it is ridiculously brilliant and hilarious--watching the show is worth it just so you can read what they have to say about it the next day.

Speaking of Australian Idol, I have to return to the topic of Dean Geyer. I mentioned several of his performances a few days ago and, though I was really amused/impressed by him, I said I wasn't sure that he deserved to win. However, there were several amazing things about Dean's most recent performance:

1.) He covered a Ryan Cabrera song! I'm not going to claim that everything Ryan Cabrera has one is genius, but his first album contains some very, very good songs (I've been meaning to post about it--this might spur me to do so).

2.) The contestants were allowed to use guitars. This, of course, proves that they are all "credible" musicians (Jessica Mauboy didn't play a guitar, but the rest did). However! Even after saying that he wanted to make "On The Way Down" rockier and less pop, do you know what Dean did? Halfway through the song, HE THREW AWAY HIS GUITAR! Yes, the precious instrument of the rock establishment, tossed aside in favor of better showmanship. I'm not sure that we can (as the judges did) credit Dean himself for the idea, but whatever--he did it, and that's what matters.



These factors, combined with his consistent improvement (I will concede that Damien's performance was quite good, for that style of music, but we'll have to see what he does next week) and the fact that he can do backflips (I have this thing for backflips--I don't know why, but they fascinate me), mean that I have to revise my opinion from last week. My official vote (even though his voice still doesn't seem that impressive) is...Dean Geyer for Australian Idol 2006! I still can't believe it, though.

Speaking of Australian Idol, I still think that Anthony Callea's latest single is very Disney-sounding. However...I've now succumbed to how absolutely gorgeous his voice is. I know, I know...I'll try to be stronger in the future. At least we have on record that at one point in time I was able to judge it critically...

I've mentioned this site before, but I have to mention it again: blog Digital Technique is really, really great--frequently updated, with the best of old (as in generally 2000's on) and new music. Some unjustly one-hit wonders and artists I probably should have heard but haven't yet--it's definitely worth checking out.

Another new-ish blog worth visiting is Ni Hao Glitter Owl, all about Chinese pop--I don't really know anything about Asian music (that's an entire continent! How can I not know anything?), but I'm finding it fascinating.

Heinz Winckler (whose third album I've ordered but not yet received) is now a married man! Very belated congratulations to him and Alette.

Ben Adams's official website disappeared a few weeks ago, which didn't seem to be a good sign in terms of his album getting released. Now, though, it appears that a redesigned website will be appearing soon, which seems like a good sign--are things moving towards a release? On a side note, all the "for friends only" messages on his MySpace are practically driving me to get a MySpace of my own.

If you visit McFly's MySpace, you can listen to a medley of three songs from their upcoming album Motion In The Ocean (due out November 6, with second single "Star Girl" coming out October 23). I think the first one is "We're The Young" and the second is "Sorry's Not Good Enough," but I'm not sure what the last one is (maybe "Transylvania"? They might say the title at some point, but I can't tell--that guess is just based on the fact that that's a Dougie song and I think that's Dougie singing). At any rate, this looks to be an excellent album (both poppy and not just a return to their first album style--maturer than that), even if I still don't understand some of the song titles ("Bubble Wrap"? Well, maybe I have a guess). I've had an incredibly difficult time getting it to play at all, let alone play the medley without stopping; I know the album release isn't that far away, but, in case anyone else wants to be able to listen to the four-minute medley without waiting for a half an hour for it to load and play, here it is.

Oh, wow--you all had to read all that for just one song, and it's not even a complete one, nor does it have good audio quality. Well...it's got no logical connection to anything I just talked about, but here's another song--I know, since this group is incredibly popular, there's a very good chance people have it already, but since I don't think it's on a regular album (it's from the On The Line soundtrack), maybe some people don't have it:

'N Sync - That Girl (Will Never Be Mine)

To buy the On The Line soundtrack, go here (physical).

Next up: maybe a Swedish singer (not Darin, although, in anticipation of his new album, I might do a follow-up to my earlier post about him at some point), or some electronic-ish stuff.

There's something about you I wanna get into

I'm not going to even pretend that there's some theme uniting this post--no particular singer, not just MySpace songs, nothing--just random thoughts and pieces of news.

The amazing Ben Adams is going to be giving away one of his songs as a free download, and he's letting fans choose which one. However, we haven't heard either of the songs, "Red Lady" or "I Messed Up," so choosing which to vote for is a little bit of a random guess. Still, definitely head over to his MySpace where you can read a brief description of the songs and vote for which you'd like to be able to download.

Speaking of amazing, Simon Curtis is planning to release his debut album as a digital download. Whenever and however Alter Boy gets released, it will be a must-purchase; I've said somewhere before that "Broken" is one of the best songs I've heard this year, and Alter Boy just might be the most exciting album I've heard this year (that wasn't released earlier). Go to Simon's MySpace or official site to hear some of his songs.

The video for Josh Hoge's debut single "360" premiered today; you can watch it on his official webite. It's nothing surprising--Josh's girlfriend cheats on him, Josh looks forlorn, band plays, Josh sings, Josh meets a new girl, old girl wants Josh back but he's with new girl--but the song holds up just as well as it did when I first heard it months ago; I can definitely picture it getting radioplay, too; I just hope it does.

On the topic of Australian Idol: Dean Geyer is very pretty. He certainly knows his way around a hair straightener (see below video). And he can do backflips (again, see said video). However, Australia, that does not mean he should necessarily win Idol. This message may be a bit late; also, I'm definitely not saying Dean should be the next to go. I can very well envision him releasing some music I would like--his voice is passable and he just needs to be hooked up with some decent songs (like Millsy and "Ms. Vanity")--but I don't know that he deserves to win. I think his career trajectory will be the same whether he wins or not, though.

However, one of his performances has given us what must be one of the greatest quotations to come out of an Idol show (please don't be offended, anyone):

Judge Kyle Sandilands, after Dean's performance of Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name": "That is a sexy song. You haven't had sex; we all know you're the God-loving virgin boy."

Genius, surely?

Anyhow, here's Dean's most recent performance on Idol ("Turn The Beat Around" for Disco Night), so you all have some clue what I'm talking about (and no, that handspring thing at the beginning, though impressive, isn't the backflip I'm talking about); you'll have to go back to the previous episode for that classy quotation, though.



If, for some reason, you'd like an mp3 of the performance, here you go (source, thanks!).

In the midst of all the boyband goodness over at The Zapping lately, there was one group that really surprised me: 365. Proving that I do not automatically like anything that comes wrapped in a boyband package, I had heard their song "That Thing" before and not been impressed. I still can't decide whether or not the original version of "One Touch" (their debut single, out November 6 as a download and November 13 in the physical version) is worthy of excitement (I think it might just barely come down on the right side of "good or not"). However, the Bimbo Jones remix (low audio quality) pushes it into definitely great territory. I'm not expert on remixes, but I always associate Bimbo Jones ones with that sort of steel drum sound. This mix, though, doesn't have that--it's faster and dancey, has electronic beats, but still keeps the original's horns. Go check out their MySpace if you have time.

A band I keep meaning to post about, the Vacancy (who some of you might remember from Popjustice's Singles Club), have taken down all the quirky fun songs from their MySpace and gotten rid of the PureVolume page which had all their older quirky songs. Is this a good sign (they are going to release them?) or a bad sign (they stopped caring? they're going in an entirely new direction?)? I'm not sure, though I really hope it's the former. Visit their MySpace page if you like--the one remaining song, "Catch Your Tear," is quite good, but it doesn't have the fun of their other songs and doesn't really reflect what their usual style is. Instead, you might want to try "Handheld," which you can still get as a free download from Popjustice. Expect a whole post about them at some point. If you like Busted or McFly (or just good music), check them out; they're definitely quite good.

And, finally, it's rather pointless, but I have to mention Anthony Callea again: his new single, "Live For Love," may hit radios this coming Monday. Of course, without listening to Australian radio 24/7, I probably won't end up hearing it until it ends up coming out November 4. Tomorrow (really, today for Australians) he's doing a photoshoot, which means the first official pictures of the new haircut will be appearing...the world (or just me) waits with breathless anticipation.

Next up: probably not Alistair Griffin, but he'll be in the next few days (I'm trying to decide whether or not it would be better to do two days about him; I guess I have more songs by him than I thought). Maybe the Vacancy, then?

(At this point, I haven't seen all of the Australian Idol contestants perform...out of the ones left, it is possible Dean is the best option--anyone have any vote one way or the other?)

Let it out, tell me what you really mean

A hodge-podge post this evening, since I didn't get to put up part two of the Blue special until this afternoon.

Things you will no longer have to hear me rant about:

• Heinz Winckler. His official website has now been updated (even if it does take forever to load now), so I'll stop complaining about lack of official news from him (and stop posting random pictures, too). If I do decide to get his album, I'll probably post up a review of it, but that should be about it.
• Who Wants To Be A Superhero? The completely ridiculous yet incredibly funny television show has now ended (Feedback won--all is right with the world!), so no more offhanded references to it (until the movie version of it comes around...). Of course, there are a couple of reality TV singing competitions coming up, so a few mentions of those may slip in here and there.
  

However, you will probably hear a good deal about McFly and Anthony Callea when they get ready to release their next albums, so be prepared for that (though I will try to keep it to a minimum and do more "formal" posts). Oddly, even though I've preordered them, my enthusiasm for Clay Aiken and Jesse McCartney's next albums has diminished; hopefully, they'll restore my faith and you'll also get to hear about those (both come out on September 19).

In further random news, Abby from Poptext has returned; I had just started reading her site when she took her sabbatical, but in the meantime I've caught up on it--that is writing, you all. If you haven't visited Poptext before, you definitely should.

The had-disappeared MySpace page of Billy Phillips, who I wrote about a little while ago, has returned! Visit it here, though he only has one song up now ("Only In My Dreams").

I mentioned Alex Vargas a few days ago and, though I was originally planning to wait to post this until I had a high quality version for you all, I've decided it's too good a song to hold onto any longer, below-average audio quality or not.

Diamonds In The Dirt--mid-tempo pop-rock with a piano, but that doesn't begin to get across the nature of this track. I might be crazy, but I think this has chart potential--at least, I hope it does. It's not the sort of track you're going to get all giggly and excited about (if you're ever the type to giggle), because it's more serious than that, but it's a bit moving and a bit sweeping and definitely more than a bit good. Writing inspiration is lacking tonight, so I'll just really recommend you listen to it.

As before, here is his MySpace and keep on the lookout for his EP, whenever it is released.

Up next: the three-day special on the only Turkish singer I know anything about--unless I decide to push it back a week.

alex vargas