Nothing in common

This is more of a Twitter-riffic post than something with enough substance to merit space on the blog, but Ben Adams, following up his crazy/brilliant video about a1's dance routines, has posted a video of a1 working on new songs that includes clips of some of the songs. They're working with David Eriksen, a Norwegian songwriter who I tend to associate with a kind of pure pop sound (several of the songs on the Saturdays' last album were by him, including "Lies" and "Set Me Off"), on that first song, which sounds more uptempo electronic than I was expecting. There's also more Zac Efron and Robert Pattinson than I might have expected.



Let's be honest: I'd probably buy that first song, the one I'm guessing is called "No Regrets," and "Nothing In Common" right now if I could.

Things were so different, now you're gone, I thought it'd be easy, I was wrong

More songwriter notes and random artist tidbits (I really am going to do more in depth posts, less "news bullet"-y, soon):

Johan "Kermit" Bobäck is working with Darin on new music (he previously collaborated with him on "Seasons Fly").

Apparently British boy band a1 are reuniting for some concerts in Norway in early December and will be performing both old and (gasp!) new songs. I am not ashamed to admit I got more than a bit excited listening to the group rehearse modern classic "Caught In The Middle." Speaking of new songs, Ben Adams, who appeared on this blog many a time in its early days, has a new-ish song on his MySpace (listen to it in higher quality on Facebook), "The Dust Won't Settle," which is really pretty pleasant (albeit sad) pop-rock--more like third album a1 than most of what we've heard of his solo album, but it shows he's just as great with a melody and with his voice. Love it. Ben has also (as I think I've mentioned before) written for Alexandra Burke's upcoming album.

Blake Lewis apparently worked with Darkchild for his upcoming album Heartbreak on Vinyl (out October 6). Listen to some beats but no vocals in this video.

If you're a sucker for über-bubblegummy Swedish pop that sounds like it could have come straight out of the '90s--I mean the really sugary sweet, cheesy kind--you might want to listen to Three's "Lucky Number." Who are Three? Three blonde sixteen year old triplets. You can probably already imagine what the music sounds like. Of course, me being me, bubblegum pop is always welcome, especially if it's got a Swedish connection.

Georgie Dennis, sister of Cathy and songwriter in her own right, has a song called "Dirty Drum" on her MySpace that sounds like it's sung by Elin Lanto. There are better, non-Elin songs there, though.

Carl Falk uploaded some new songs to his MySpace a few months ago. I presume they're demos, though I've got no actual proof of that. My favorite is "Shameless," co-written by him, Lindy Robbins, Kristian Lundin, and Rami Yacoub; it's very pop.

Speaking of demos uploaded on MySpace months ago, Tony Nilsson put the demo of Elin Lanto's "Discotheque" on his MySpace. I'm a total demo addict, as I've convinced before, so for me, hearing the substantial differences--though in this case, it's not a matter of voice, since even the demo contains Elin's voice--is really fascinating. The final version is definitely better, but there are some lost elements which, though they probably had to be lost for the sake of the song, I love.

Foolish hearts

A brief interruption of the countdown for some VERY IMPORTANT NEWS:


Ben Adams is on Celebrity Big Brother this year in the UK (hat tip to Chig). And other famous people, but really, who cares (answer: the rest of the world, which is probably way more interested in other names)? Wonder what he's actually like? This is not going to help me at all on the "convincing me to give up hopes about a revived solo career that I acknowledged are most likely futile but just can't let go of" front.

In other news, songs I'm looking forward to hearing include:

Saint Etienne's disco "Method Of Modern Love" (clip on PopJustice, due out Feb. 9)

Pet Shop Boys' new album, Yes, and single, Love Etc. (see XO for details on the album; single out March 16 and album out March 23)

Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You" (supposedly out Jan. 19; album supposedly out mid-March)

German singer Jeanette's "Undress To The Beat"--this could be a HUGE step up in quality for the girl behind "Rock My Life" and "Rockin' On Heaven's Floor" (low quality but in full version here or better quality clip here; out Feb. 13)

New-ish songs I love:

Sound of Arrows' "M.A.G.I.C." (clip and free download on PopJustice)

Frankmusik's "Questionable Times" (on MySpace; not having in it high quality drives me crazy but the album title labeling it a Complete Me demo gives me hope)

Come January, hit the shops and take my gifts back

If you read this blog in its first year of existence, you'll know how much I loved the solo career of this former a1 member--in fact, I fell in love with his solo music before I'd heard anything from a1, though I changed that quickly and fell in love with a1, too.

His debut solo single "Sorry" should have been a much bigger hit than it was, mainly because it's great but secondly because I still desperately need to hear It's Brutal Out There, his debut solo album (I'm never giving up hope). The songs on the album sampler (amazing fun danceable songs "Get Off My Girl" and "Don't Tread On My Toes" and excellent ballad "I Don't Wanna Stay") were all unfailingly great (and still sound fresh these, what, three, four years on), as have been some of the songs he's posted on his MySpace over the years, b-side "Delicious," and songs he's written, like Sergey Lazarev's "Fake" (and you don't know how much it's driven me crazy to not be able to hear in full the songs in that Writing 2006 video he posted--work with Jörgen Elofsson, Eg White, Robin Thicke [though maybe for Thicke], and typical quirky Ben pop songs...life is not complete until I've heard some of the songs in that video).

The point of all this "I love his music" is to communicate that such is my level of liking this artist that it's practically required that I mention any new music he chooses to give us. It's for that reason, then, that I report that he's recently unveiled a Christmas song. Being him, of course, half of it is innuendo and the other half is snarky bemoaning about the Christmas season. It actually is a good catchy mid-to-uptempo pop song, though, and though it's a song probably never meant to go anywhere beyond MySpace and is sort of deliberately restrained and semi-chintzy, I imagine it'll get a lot of plays from me. It makes me want this singer back on the scene even more so.

Also, if you think "Same Old Brand New You" is anything other than AMAZING, you are wrong. One of the best boy band songs ever, and that's saying an awful lot--one of the best pop songs ever, probably.



There's nowhere this song can be purchased, but you can visit this artist's MySpace here and buy the single for "Sorry" here (physical).

Next up: a demo from an American artist.

This word I'm dropping

I love Ben Adams's music. There used to be pretty frequent updates on what he was doing included as asides on this blog, but eventually there are only so many times you can say "Ben Adams has put up some new photographs of himself. When will we ever get to hear his album? At least he rotates songs on his MySpace fairly frequently." Well, with Ben having just engaged in a web chat sort of thing, here are a few things going on related to Ben Adams (some fairly old):

• Ben's holding auditions for a girl band. No other real details that I know of, but it's in progress, and the final result will probably be "quirky."
  
• The album that we've been waiting for is completed (probably no surprise there), but, given that he's no longer with BMG, he's working on a new one instead. However, in regards to that earlier album, he's "looking at ways to put it out maybe over the internet" (YES, PLEASE DO THIS...unless he ends up finding some way to put some old songs on the new album and wants to do that instead).
• In response to if it's his voice in the background of Sergey Lazarev's "Fake" (which Mobius pointed out a while ago): "i think most of his album is my voice unfortunately, but i wrote most of it and it stayed number one in russia for quite some time last year, so it's not all bad." (Incidentally, both Ben and another former a1 member, Mark Read, do some backing vocals on Sergey's latest album.)
  
• He's owner of his own studio now.
  
• ...and yes, he does have some new photos up.
  

Now is the time to unwind

I should probably just edit these bits of information into one of the two posts below, but...well...oh well. Two things:

1.) Ben Adams has a duet, "Take It Off," that you can listen to over at the MySpace of another singer. At first listen, I'm not particularly fond of it and, unlike some songs, I'd be surprised if that changes, but it's Ben Adams, so I'm sort of obligated to report it.

2.) Guess who finally made it to the top of Sweden's singles chart? Måns Zelmerlöw! "Cara Mia" definitely deserved it, but I wasn't sure if it was going to happen.

She's a rainbow baby when she's painting the town

(After suffering from yet another bout of insomnia, I decided I might as well check up on some of my other popstars. I promise there will be a real post later today, but I just couldn't not share this now.)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are pretty much no words for my excitement at the moment--I got hit with two pieces of huge news tonight/this morning. I don't even know where to begin, or what to say, or...well, let's start off with the one that's easier to deal with first.

There were two bits of Gareth Gates that I neglected to bring to you all earlier this week. One is that he's having an online question and answer session this Friday (news which was accompanied by this photo at left). I mainly didn't mention it because I can't imagine it'll be anything other than chaotic, and any important questions will surely be answered or deliberately left unanswered by him. The other piece of news was that HMV had a listing for a new single by him, but the supposed release date--earlier February--was clearly far too soon to be accurate, given the time needed for promotion.

So, the news update on the Gareth front? HMV is now listing the release date of his new single as March 19. Now, that doesn't mean it's guaranteed, but it is more reasonable, and is pretty exciting. The real question is: what does the song sound like?

(Picture credit to BenAdams-music.co.uk; thank you!)

Onto the other popstar update, and it's one I can't even believe I'm reporting: news from Ben Adams! Though he's always been pretty good about rotating new songs onto his MySpace, there's generally not very much heard from him. Before you get too excited, there's no mention of an actual release date or even of the album "coming together;" however, when it comes to Ben, I'll take what news I can get.

His official website now has a video showing--well, it's difficult to say what it's showing, because basically it's just Ben running around with a camera and interviewing a bunch of people he's working with, both in Sweden and in the U.S. (it's all from 2006). The video is pretty long, but it's definitely worth sitting through if you're at all interested in him. Early in the video, a song came on that I didn't know, and I was pretty excited: "ohh, that's lovely--he's letting us hear one of his new songs--cool!" But no--the entire thing is filled with clips of brand new songs (one of which sounds decidedly Prince-esque, I think, and even says "her favorite color's purple")--I can't even begin to say how many there were, but a lot. They also played a clip of "Get Off My Girl;" I found that really reassuring--I don't know why I was worried they might scrap it, but I thought maybe, despite that track's strength, they might go in an all new direction). I honestly cannot wait to be able to buy his album, whenever it finally gets released!

Other highlights? I might have missed some names, but I'm pretty sure I heard Ben refer to one man as "Jorgen" and he referenced the records he'd sold with Britney Spears, which would mean that must be Jorgen Elofsson; I don't know what he actually looks like, so I can't confirm, but I don't know who else that could possibly be. Also with a cameo in the video: Robin Thicke, who Ben is apparently writing with.

As for the song clips themselves, I was hugely relieved to hear that most of them still have that slightly experimental, producer-oriented, maybe electronic (as in produced, not all "real" instruments) sound and are mid- to up-tempo (though there was a pretty nice ballad played at one point).

I'll see if I can come up with something slightly more intelligent to say when I'm not incredibly sleep deprived (maybe I just need to go take a bunch of NyQuil?), but basically: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Real information! New songs! Just actually seeing that Ben is still alive and working!

So, basically: possible single release for Gareth in mid-March and Ben is still actually doing real work on the album--good news all around, then. Anyone else want to wish for any comebacks while the good luck seems to be running so high?

(Can I just say, though, Ben, that perhaps, given the situation your former girlfriend is in, group joking about racism--even if it was filmed in 2006--might not have been the best thing to include?)

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.

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?)

I'm feelin' that this is my time

I was planning on writing about V today, but looking at the MySpace of one of its former band members has inspired me to do a MySpace check-in. Be prepared for some subpar audio quality, though.

Aaron "formerly of V" Buckingham has a new song up on his MySpace, as well as a blog entry. The new song is "Once In My Life" and, like "In My Head," it's a nice, sort of laid back pop song, although "Once In My Life" is a "moving on" and hopeful song (unlike the worry-filled "In My Head"). He hasn't lost his sense of humor, so his blog entry is worth a read, too. I'm really liking his new music; hopefully we'll hear more from him beyond MySpace in the future.

Simon Curtis has a very different style from Aaron, but his songs are great, too. His style of pop is darker and more electro-influenced. I'm currently loving his Broken (Show Mix) (beware if you're going to listen to it--it's addictive!)--it definitely has that dark electro-pop sound going on, but it has a really catchy melody and strays away from the minimalism so popular in electro now (which can work well, but it's nice to mix it up every now and then). It's going to sound even better in high quality--I cannot wait for the album, though I have no idea when it will be coming out. Check his MySpace regularly, though, because it will definitely be worth buying. (In addition to his MySpace, you can also check out this one for another of Simon's songs.)

I'm not going to post any Heinz Winckler songs, because I finally found a place to order his album (here, if you're interested and don't mind spending far more on it than you probably should) and I'm going to wait until I have them in high quality. However, his MySpace blog has a rather odd message up--maybe this isn't really his official MySpace? But it did have songs from his album up before the album was released and it's got a message from someone who I know really interviewed him... I'll review Moment Of Truth whenever it arrives (which could be in two weeks or three months, who knows).

I just found out about Gavin Mikhail recently, when he was featured on Zappin' It To Ya, but I'm already in love with "Brave" (I was reluctant to post this, because I really think higher quality audio will add a lot to it, but I'm not sure when the album will show up on iTunes). It's gorgeous piano-based pop that is worth checking out.

And, in the ongoing series of periodical Ben Adams updates...Ben has a new picture up on his MySpace (this is it). Thrilling news, yes? Still waiting for any actual news about, say, the album or something. I really am going to get around to posting about Ben soon--I'm thinking next week or early in the week after that; even though he's only ever released one single, it'll probably be a two-day event.

Next up: I really think Josh Hoge will be the next topic. Given my track record with predictions, though, that probably means he won't be.