Not alone

This coming semifinal, the third overall, has the chance to give us a solid top four. Will that happen? That will depend not just on the voters but whether the artists participating live up to the potential they have. There are also a good number of acts here that I can imagine just being filler.

Sources: QX (1, 2), Gylleneskor, SVT, HD, SR, Schlagerprofilerna (1, 2), Velvet's official site,

1.) Velvet, "The Queen" (Tony Nilsson/Henrik Janson)
Backing singer turned artist in her own right Jenny Petterson, a.k.a. Velvet, has built herself quite a fanbase among fans of Swedish dance-pop. She makes her third appearance in Melodifestivalen this year, following 2006's Latin-flavored "Mi Amore" (which made it to the second chance round but no further, though it did prompt a revamp of the rules so that artists in the second chance round got to perform their songs again) and 2008's disco "Déjà Vu" (which didn't make it out of its semifinal). Outside of the contest, she's released a good number of great dance-pop songs; her 2006 album may have been Finally, but that title, accurate for its time, would be even more appropriate for her upcoming album The Queen: we've been waiting for it since she released the amazing swooshy dance-pop song "Fix Me" in early 2007. In the intervening time, she's released four additional singles, meaning that by the time the song "The Queen" comes out, she'll have released six singles from her new album before it's even come out.

If September is the queen of classy Swedish dance-pop, Velvet tends to make more hands-in-the-air sort of stuff, big fun dance your worries away tracks which sparkle with a touch of '80's. "The Queen" may be a bit of a change for her, though; Velvet has said it's not like her other tracks. Since she explained that by saying that it's dancier and poppier, though, I'm not worried (as well as confused--how a song could possibly be both poppier and dancier than what she's previously released, I have no idea). Velvet has also said the song is a cool electro dance song and will have a Madonna-inspired performance. The song is co-written by Tony Nilsson (of Ola's best songs, Elin Lanto's "Discotheque," Johan Krafman's music, very underrated work for himself, and, in addition to other songs, my probably undying musical love) and is described by its writers as an attitude-filled retro hit which you either love or hate. Schlagerprofilerna said a little while ago that, out of the girl pop group of Marie Serneholt, Agnes, Amy Diamond, and Agnes, Velvet had the most buzz.

Supposedly The Queen, Velvet's new album, comes out March 18. By that point, we'll have heard at least seven tracks on it--the singles plus "Sound Of Music"--and maybe eight, if "My Rhythm" is on it. She's also just about to release "Chemistry" in the UK, complete with, as Chart Rigger pointed out, a Pete Hammond remix.

To watch: other people have other favorites, but I still love "Fix Me" too much to not post it



2.) Rigo & the Topaz Sound feat. Red Fox, "I Got U" (Rodrigo Pencheff/Tobias Karlsson)
I tend to associate Rigo, a member of Infinite Mass and a solo artist, with kind of Latin-influenced urban pop (or hip-hop), sometimes reggaeton-influenced. I'm not hugely familiar with his work, though. Topaz Sound is the band backing him up here, I think, and Red Fox is a reggae singer. The songwriters describe "I Got U" as a happy '50s-'60s inspired song with a Caribbean touch, not a hip hop song but not schlager either.

To watch: the music video for "Vamos a bailar"



3.) Molly Sandén, "Så vill stjärnorna" (Ingela "Pling" Forsman/Bobby Ljunggren/Marcos Ubeda)
Bert Karlsson, a record company svengali who always tries to get artists in Melodifestivalen, has been trying to get Molly in the contest since the 2008 edition. Now she's actually old enough to enter and, unsurprisingly, here she is. Even without Bert, though, I would've expected and hoped to see her in the contest after her breakthrough in 2006, when she won Sweden's national final for Junior Eurovision and took Sweden to what was by far its best place, third. The song that did it for her, her self-written schlager ballad "Det finaste någon kan få," is nothing short of fantastic (as well as my go-to proof for the fact that yes, I can love schlager ballads).

As a commenter mentioned recently, Molly may be younger than Amy Diamond, but she has a much older-sounding voice; if it's Amy's voice that you find the main stumbling block with liking her, you may have a much better chance of liking Molly. Hopefully her song, described by its songwriters as a beautiful ballad about when destiny finally happens and by Molly as atmospheric, beautiful and with a Nordic touch, is worthy of her; along with Sarah Dawn Finer, Molly is one of my two big ballad hopes for this year. The songwriters are Melodifestival stalwarts, which means they've penned both songs I love and songs I feel no attachment to--hopefully this is one of their better efforts, but it could go either way. Christer Björkman says the song is a classic Swedish ballad, but I'm not necessarily going to take his word for it. Schlagerprofilerna did say that they'd heard "Så vill stjärnorna" is a strong ballad that those who've heard it expect to end up in Globen.

To watch: Molly singing "Det finaste någon kan fa," of course (here at the Swedish final for Junior Eurovision). Keep in mind this was back in 2006 when she was fourteen; she's only had time to grow up and get better since then.



4.) E.M.D., "Baby Goodbye" (Erik Segerstedt/Mattias Andréasson/Danny Saucedo/Oscar Görres)
Made up of three former Idol contestants, boy band E.M.D. has yet to really impress me. Given that Sweden is the source of most of the boy band classics, a Swedish boy band really should be releasing fantastic songs, not uninspiring covers of "All For Love" and generally decent but unmemorable material. Given that Danny, since before joining the group, has been the singer of fantastic dance-pop songs, the fact that the group has a serious lack of great up-tempo songs has been disappointing for me. That hasn't stopped them from doing very well in Sweden, though, building up a large number of fans and (somewhat crazily) taking home the title of year's best track with "Jennie Let Me Love You" at Sweden's 2008 Grammis.

Their description of their self-written entry, "Baby Goodbye" (chosen at the last minute instead of the Jörgen Elofsson-penned "Saturday Night," currently released as a single by group member Erik) is exactly the thing they needed to say to get me interested in it despite my reservations: a self-confident up-tempo song that isn't a typical E.M.D. song. and the sort of thing that would do well in Europe. It's true that co-writer Oscar Görres did one of the better tracks on the group's debut album, the melodic piano-and-strings "Run To You," but my real hope is that he and Danny have indulged their electronic and dance sides that so far they've shown everywhere else besides the E.M.D. project. "Hey (I've Been Feeling Kind Of Lonely)," "Blue," "Running Away," and "Turn Of The Sound" from Danny's solo albums were all co-written by Danny and Oscar. Oscar is also the co-writer of The Provider's electronic pop song "Wanna Feel Real," Monrose's "Hit 'n Go," and Donal Skehan's "Double Cross My Heart," which is a pretty poppy catalogue. I'm hoping that the group will have decided they'd rather be Danny-as-a-group or "Bye Bye Bye"-era 'N Sync and, at least for "Baby Goodbye," have gone in that direction. That's probably hoping for too much, especially since their interviews have made it sound like it was mainly Erik who wrote it, but there's a chance the group could exceed the low quality expectations I think people have for them.

To watch: E.M.D. performing (via playback) "Jennie Let Me Love You," their second single and first original single



5.) Mikael Rickfors, "Du vinner över mig" (Thomas G:son)
Mikael Rickfors is, from what I understand, one of those artists who's been around for a long time in Sweden and has worked as both part of a group and solo. He's not an artist who's work I'm not familiar with, despite the large number of albums he's released. Thomas G:son is a name I'm familiar with, given the generally schlager-inclined writer's large output over the years--sometimes throwaway (Anna Book's "Samba Sambero") and sometimes great. Mikael is generally more of a rock artist, though, not your typical Melodifetival act, and he says "Du vinner över mig" is a rock song which only has just a little schlager in it.

"Du vinner över mig" is described by G:son as "'80s style in a leather suit," whatever that means.

To watch listen: "Vingar," an '80's hit of his



6.) Maja Gullstrand, "Här för mig själv" (Thomas G:son/Marcos Ubeda)
Maja, like many a past Melodifestival contestant, appeared on reality singing show Fame Factory. For all that, though, she doesn't make music in a "typical Melodifestival style" at all--it's quirky light jazzy bossa nova style stuff. From the description of the songwriters, it sounds like that's what we should expect here, too; they say "Här för mig själv" is groovy trendy neo-retro bossa nova clad in flowery yellow velour pajamas (yes, that's really the description). Maja has released two albums in Sweden, but it's still unlikely she's got the fanbase to push her onto the next round. Still, strange things can happen in Melodifestivalen.

To watch: Maja singing maybe her biggest hit, "Alla dessa ord," live



7.) Sofia, "Alla" (Dimitri Stassos/Henrik Wikström/Irini Michas/Nina Karolidou)
Sofia has competed in Melodifestivalen once before, failing to make it out of her semifinal with "Hypnotized" in 2007 (despite me thinking the Greek-flavored up-tempo pop song--kind of in the style Helena Paparizou used to do--was the second best track in its heat). She's done a little in other countries since then but not anything in Sweden. Now blonde, she returns to the contest with a rock-inspired ethno-pop song--tough pop-rock with a cool riff according to the writers--all in Greek and in a Eurovision pop style. It's co-written by one of the writers of "Hypnotized" and the man who was, at some point in the past two years, working on an album with her, Dimitri Stassos. Henrik Wikström has contributed to too many Melodifestival tracks to name while the other two songwriters are making their first appearance in the contest (though I've written positively about Irini Michas's Greek-flavored dance-rock-pop song "Play" before).

To watch: Sofia performing "Hypnotized" at Melodifestivalen 2007



8.) BWO, "You're Not Alone" (Fredrik Kempe/Alexander Bard/Anders Hansson)
On paper, this should be an easy contender for the title of best song in Melodifestivalen. Three-time entrant electronic pop group BWO's past two entries into the contest, "Temple Of Love" and "Lay Your Love On Me," have both been quality tracks loved by the fans (and they took second and third respectively at Melodifestivalen) and the group has made many a fantastic pop track since their 2005 debut album, Prototype. Composed of singer Martin Rolinski (a former reality TV singing contestant), Alexander Bard (a pop maestro behind songs by Army of Lovers and Alcazar among many others), and Martina Schiptjenko (who does the group's frequent fabulously spoken middle eights), BWO have an admirable commitment to making modern (or maybe more aptly futuristic) pop music--a commitment which they take seriously--and never fail to be impeccably styled. In my opinion, though, the group was a little off their game with their third album, a fact I was made less worried about when they debuted the "Hung Up"-like "Lay Your Love On Me" in last year's Melodifestival. Unfortunately, he two new tracks on their greatest hits besides that song weren't exciting for me, but they're a group I'm always going to want to like.

With songwriters like those of "You're Not Alone," though, one has to hope for the best even more so than you would just because BWO is involved. Bard, as mentioned, has put his name to many a great pop track. Fredrik Kempe's star has risen rapidly in Melodifestivalen since 2007's "Cara Mia," with him winning with Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" last year and scoring a number of entries this year. Anders Hansson, like Bard, is a writer and producer with pop roots running back a long time, at least to the '80's, and also like Bard worked with the Alcazar of the past, though unlike Bard he's also working with the group in its current incarnation. In addition to co-writing Alcazar's "Stay The Night" from this year, he's also the man behind Agnes's latest album, which includes the top-notch disco-pop track "Release Me." He's a man whose work I'm always going to be interested in, even if every track isn't a 10 out of 10 for me.

Add up three exciting pop songwriters like that and a group as interesting and capable of pop brilliance as BWO and you should get something fans are dying to hear--and they are. Will it be worth the wait? I'm far more nervous than I want to be. "You're Not Alone" exists in two versions, one ballad and one disco, and it's the ballad version--described as a modern dramatic electro gospel ballad--the group has chosen to enter into the contest, though the song didn't start its life as a ballad and it's said they've left open the option of entering the disco version in Eurovision should they win and many other countries choose to send ballads. Part of me is extremely skeptical of acts who I prefer doing up-tempo work who've entered great songs in Melodifestivalen in the past "going ballad" in search of a win. Anyway, BWO says the song starts small and then becomes really big before ending small again and that it will remind people of Dima Bilan's "Believe," while Schlagerprofilerna referred to it as "Timbaland meets Army of Lovers." BWO also say it shows off Martin's voice. The group says they've changed their image, too: they're going more sci-fi and more futuristic.

A new album, Big Science, will be coming out April 1 and boasts producers including the aforementioned Bard and Hansson as well as another frequent Melodifestival songwriter, Henrik Wikström, and Johan Fjellström, the man behind West End Girls and Star Pilots as well as Verona's 2007 entry "Ti Sento." The group has at various times said that its new sound will be "inspired by such varied sources as Duran Duran, The Killers, contemporary electronic pop, classic soul and R&B" and that it is a little like the Killers and has some traces of Kraftwerk, but with BWO production still.

To watch: BWO performing "Temple Of Love" at Melodifestivalen 2006. If they mean it when they say this new song is more gospel, though, maybe "Chariots Of Fire" would be a better indication of what to expect, even if that is up-tempo.



What I expect my favorites to be: this is kind of hard--there are some people I'm hoping to like but that, moreso than in the past weeks, I could just as easily be left unmoved by. I want to love Velvet's song and I do like most of her work and Tony Nilsson's work so it looks promising, but "Deja Vu" isn't a song I return to at all at this point. As I said above, I have real concerns about BWO, concerns I'm hoping are misplaced. There's still a good chance their song will be one of my favorites of the week, though. Molly is right up there too for me, though once again, I don't feel safe about the song yet. That's even more true for E.M.D.; there's a good chance I'll rank their song in my top four, but will they really turn things around and be as fantastic as a Swedish boy band should be? I liked Sofia's last entry, but the rock part of the description does make me a bit nervous considering that the "heavier" songs I've heard from her and from those writers are more often misses than hits for me. Those first four--Velvet, BWO, Molly Sandén, and E.M.D.--are the four I'm guessing will be my favorites, though, and there's a decent chance I'll like Sofia's song, too. There's some great potential here, but equally potential to be let down.

When every night was Saturday night

"Interesting" is often a cop-out word for when you can't come up with a more descriptive adjective or want to avoid committing to stating whether something is good or bad, but I can't think of a better one for this little piece of news.

Swedish group E.M.D.--made up of three former Idol contestants, Danny Saucedo (he of brilliant dance-pop), Erik Segerstedt (of a pop-rock-soul album), and Mattias Andréasson--were chosen last year to be a joker in this year's Melodifestival. The group ended up choosing to participate in the contest with the uptempo "Baby Goodbye," a song written by them and friend Oscar Görres that they say isn't a typical E.M.D. track (I'm hoping that means it's more like the electronic dance music Danny and Oscar Görres often work in). However, up until the last minute, apparently there was a very good chance they would end up singing the Jörgen Elofsson-penned "Saturday Night," which they said was more of a classic schlager song (as opposed to "Baby Goodbye," which they said is more attitude-filled and Europe-friendly).

Now, Erik Segerstedt is releasing a new single called "Saturday Night." A coincidence? It could be--Daniel Lindström, for example, recently released a single with the same title and it's hardly a unique title--but it seems unlikely. If it's true that "Saturday Night" is schlager, though, and if it wasn't been reworked, it'll mark a complete change in sound for the singer who began his solo career by covering Bryan Rice's "Can't Say I'm Sorry." I haven't heard it yet, but apparently it is or shortly will be on Swedish radios; I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to have my ear out for it. You throw the words "schlager" and "Melodifestival reject" around, and you've got my attention.

The members of E.M.D. are baffling me with the scheduling of the solo careers in relation to the group, though. Presumably the group's debut album will be re-released to tie in with "Baby Goodbye," but Danny just released his second solo album late this December and is currently in the middle of another single release, "All On You." That could just be to keep him in the public eye and therefore increase the group's publicity, too, especially since this is the second single from the album. For Erik to choose to release a lead single for his second album in the middle of Melodifestivalen would be risky enough considering how much Melodifestivalen tends to dominate the charts around this time and that Erik's not a solidly established artist (not a guaranteed big seller). For him to release the single in the middle of Melodifestival season when he's actually a member of a group competing in the contest seems even stranger.

Still, if "Saturday Night" is a good schlager song, I'll gladly welcome it. If it's been reworked into typical E.M.D. or Erik style...well, I'll probably be significantly less enthusiastic. He has sung the "happy" song live with just piano and guitar backing, which is semi-ominous.

Speaking of strange release date choices from Idol contestants considering Melodifestivalen is going on, I was surprised to see that the winner of the latest season of Idol in Sweden, Kevin Borg, is set to release his debut single, "Street Lights," on February 18 and his debut album, The Beginning, on March 4. Then again, I guess he'll sell so much no matter what Melodifestivalen wasn't a concern. I do want to hear "Street Lights," mainly to get a feel for what direction he's going in--I could be interested or not at all, considering the variety of songs he did on the show.

The one and only

(Photo credit to SVT, as usual.)

In the least surprising reveal ever, SVT announced today that the last joker is...E.M.D. Gasps all around, I'm sure.

And get this: the performer of previously announced track "Higher" is...Star Pilots! Goodness. Who'd have guessed?

The actual bits of news that came out of this are the title and composers of E.M.D.'s track and (sort of) the composition of Star Pilots.



E.M.D.'s song is called "Baby Goodbye" (if reusing tracks wasn't forbidden, they should've reused the Friday Hill song of the same name) and is written by the group and Oscar Görres, who often works with Danny and who I think is a friend of his. I usually associate Oscar with up-tempo dance-influenced songs in the past (Danny's "Hey (I've Been Feeling Kind of Lonely" and "Blue" [as well as the will-we-ever-get-to-hear-more-than-a-clip "Alive"], The Provider's "Wanna Feel Real," producer on Monrose's "Hit 'n' Run," Donal Skehan's "Double Cross My Heart," Loveshy's "Mr. Gorgeous"), but given that this is a song for E.M.D., I don't think we should expect that kind of production. The up-tempo strings-and-piano-featuring "Give Me Some Time," an E.M.D. song written by Oscar, is maybe more representative of what we should expect (for the record, I really like "Give Me Some Time" and think that's one of the album's better songs, but it's not a smash single sort of track). Then again...maybe not. Do I dare get my hopes up? The songwriters describe the song as up-tempo and--well, heck, let's italicize this--not a typical E.M.D. track. Could the group finally live up to the brilliance that a boy band from Sweden should theoretically be? The description also says it's a track that would go over well in Europe. Obviously you always have to take these songwriter descriptions with a lot of salt, but they've basically just said there exactly what they needed to say to get me excited about the group again.

Schlagerprofilerna reports that a last minute decision was made by the group to go with "Baby Goodbye" as opposed to a song penned by Jörgen Elofsson called "Saturday Night."



As for the other real question--who the members of Star Pilots would actually be--well, the group is playing coy and not releasing actual names. The four members are instead going by M-38, M-31, J-21, and J38. J38 is (as reported by Gylleneskor) Johan Becker, the singer on the Star Pilots tracks so far. The group's answers to the usual profile questions really work the whole Top Gun/'80's/pilots angle, but the description of "Higher" as an uplifting kick of energy with one foot in the '80's and the other in the here and now, a radio hit with a club feeling and an international sound, is exactly what I wanted to hear.

And I don't wanna stop

Am I ever going to stop writing about Melodifestivalen? No, probably not.

In interviews with QX, the first eight artists announced gave us a little more information about their songs.

Alcazar talked about "Stay The Night," with Tess saying it sounds like a combination of songs Alcazar have done earlier, with Andreas saying that it reminded him a little bit of "Knock On Wood."

BWO say they noticed that modern dramatic ballads do well, so presumably that's what they think "You're Not Alone" is. Apparently it's a song that shows off Martin's singing and they say it's this year's "Empty Room" and "Believe" (great...).

Måns Zelmerlöw says "Hope & Glory" is an upgrade of "Cara Mia," big and grand. He also reveals that there was another song he worked on with Fredrik Kempe and considered sending, a megaballad in a French march tempo, but (and this is why you have to love Måns) he decided that he "had to get to dance" or he would be "boring" otherwise. He hasn't sent in songs he's written to any other country yet (a song he co-wrote was in Romania's nationa final this year), but he has enough that he can and (probably) will.

I haven't mentioned this in a blog post yet, but the fact that Markoolio is the first joker announced has been discussed in the comments. Markoolio's song, "Kärlekssång från mig," is described, as Melodiment pointed out, as a ballad with a twist (and funny lyrics) and is from the writers of not just some of Markoolio's own songs (like "Värsta Schlagern") but also of 2005's B-Boys International and Paul M's "One Step Closer" and 2007's Verona's "La Musica." Damian pointed out an article in which Markoolio says there will be strippers, with Markoolio lying on the ground and crawling around. Speaking of Markoolio, I want to take another opportunity to praise "Emma, Emma" from his last album. It may have kind of cringeworthy lyrics, but if "Värsta Schlagern" was Markoolio doing a parody of schlager but actually making a brilliant schlager song with a lot of help from a female singer, "Emma, Emma" is the techno/Eurodance equivalent of it. All three of my preferred tracks from that album involved Markoolio being smart enough to delegate a lot of the hook duties and actual good parts of the song to a female singer, so it'll be interesting to see if he does that at all with "Kärlekssång från mig." I'm not counting on it, though.

With three joker spots left, the names being mentioned again and again are Marie Serneholt (would love her to be back with any music period, so a big yes from me), Orup, Darin (love him, obviously, but I'm not sure that I want him in Melodifestivalen), EMD, and Lutricia McNeal.

As Schlager Queen and Gylleneskor (among others) both reported, dansband Lasse Stefanz have declined to sing "Den Första Kyssen;" as they're the demo artists, if they refuse to sing the song, SVT has an option to disqualify the song entirely if they don't feel they can find anyone else they want to sing it. If that happens, another song--one of the ones that just missed the cut--would be chosen to replace it. In 2007, Måns's "Cara Mia" and Lustans Lakejer's "Allt vi en gång trodde på" were replacements, so you could potentially get something good out of a disqualification...then again, the current song could be great. The lists of the finalists (the songs chosen and those that just missed out) and the top 116 are posted on SVT's site (as PDFs--the former is here and the latter is here). I love going through in the months afterward and trying to figure out what songs released were Melodifestivalen rejects (I've got some list somewhere I should go find and see if anyone can add onto), so, though it's a bit early to do that with these lists, they may provide some entertainment in the future.

When you're on the edge and you're not getting all that you oughta get

(Warning: this is not really an album review--more just somewhat random musings inspired by E.M.D.'s A State Of Mind. Second warning: if you don't have a general fondness for the boy band sound or you liked Danny's album but are already thinking you probably won't like this album, I wouldn't really suggest getting it.)

It's rare to find boy bands doing the pure boy band sound of the late '90's and early 2000's today. Sure, if you do a little continent-hopping you'll run into some solo artists whose work could pass for one man boy band of the old sort, but nowadays it seems far more common for boy bands who don't want to wield guitars to incorporate a significant urban/R&B influence into their music.

We're not here to talk about those boy bands who seem to have taken "Girlfriend" as their inspiration, though. Instead, we're here to talk about how, after long having a surprising (or perhaps not, if you think about money) lack of boy bands considering the number of boy band classics its songwriters have given us, Sweden now has a new boy band: E.M.D. With two successful singles under their belt, one a cover and one original, the group of former Idol contestants released their new album, A State Of Mind, this week. And, save for a couple of tracks, it's R&B-influence-free (one of the exceptions being "One Call Away," a musically sweet fluffy R&B-lite ballad which I initially brushed off as pointless filler that didn't feel like a natural fit for the group and left no real impact but which as skyrocketed up in my affections since then to become a massive favorite).

That means they've generally avoided one of the major stumbling blocks of today's boy bands: a preoccupation with trying to seem cool that almost inevitably seems insincere and puts them in this dangerous zone where they never truly go far enough to make us believe their hip claims music-wise (or styling-wise) but also spend so much time trying to pursue that more R&B/contemporary sound and image that they forget about the vital importance of just having good melodies. In other words, many boy bands nowadays come off as "try hard" with their posturing but actually haven't tried hard enough to actually make cool edgy pop songs or to make such great songs that people don't care--or both.

Neither, though, is A State Of Mind a return to that sound of the golden age of boy bands; it tries to sound more organic, as if it's based more in real instruments (though it should be said that this is a matter of degrees--indie this is not; it's all still a tightly produced affair). That's not to say that some changes in arrangement wouldn't allow these songs to be used in an older boy band album; some of the melodies would fit right in. As is, though, the musical base here is one that wouldn't sound out of place on, say, a Bryan Adams album. Maybe the best way to illustrate what I'm trying to say is this: there are no songs here that feel designed to be (non-slow) danced to. Sure, you could picture some should swaying and dramatic hand gestures in a video for or performance of "For You" (which Andreas Carlsson and Jörgen Elofsson helped write) but that's about it. Or maybe it would be even simpler to just restate that the music is designed to sound more instrumental--not in the sense of lacking vocals, but of having real instruments, even if that's not actually the case.

Sometimes those real instruments are very welcome: the strings-and-piano base of "Give Me Some Time" makes for a distinctive (in the context of the album) and lovely sound, though I do wonder if in an alternative universe we'd have gotten a trancey-dance backing instead: it's written by the "D" of E.M.D., Danny Saucedo, and Oscar Görres, who worked with Danny on Danny's solo album--could it be a leftover from that, or is it just a result of Danny and Oscar's continued collaboration?

I really like going-for-big-and-semi-majestic "Run To You" and "Look At You Now" as well, but they too have that Bryan Adams-in-a-boy band sound. Which is fine in some ways--it means no tinny production likely to sound dated very quickly, and there is definitely a richness that can result from this sort of instrumentation. Sometimes, though, I long for the pop stormer-ness of 'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye," the giddy sugar rush of LMNT's "Juliet," or the intoxication of Backstreet's "Larger Than Life," which manages to be totally grand while still being streamlined, no element out of place and nothing wasted. Or a brilliant cascading over-the-top pop epic like a1's "Same Old Brand New You." Those songs would never have fit in on this album given its current style, and I know there are some people who are glad of that because pop has moved on; I don't think that was the main concern here, though, given that this is hardly a boundaries-pushing album. Being bold doesn't have to mean pushing boundaries, though, and I wish there was more boldness here; more...fun.

None of this is to say that A State Of Mind is a bad album or one that isn't enjoyable (for me, it is--I can envision myself listening to "Run To You," "Jennie Let Me Love You," "One Call Away," "For You," "I Lied" [a song which I've got a whole mini-discussion of, though it's writing about the song, not raving about their version of it], "Give Me Some Time," and "Look At You Now," and given that I'm not really an albums person, that's pretty good, more than enough for me to not regret buying it); it's just that it would have been nice if it could have found some way to incorporate some thrilling pop moments, those heady rushes of songs.

To buy E.M.D.'s album A State Of Mind, go here (physical) or here (digital).

(I do not usually upload this many songs from an album, but I really think the music will help explain my thoughts better than my words could; still, consequently the songs will only be uploaded for a short time.)

Waiting for my luck to turn

Speaking of boy bands, a big thanks to Alexander for the heads-up on the fact that E.M.D.'s new album State Of Mind will come out May 14. The tracklisting:

1.) All For Love (Radio Edit)
2.) Run To You
3.) Jennie Let Me Love You
4.) One Call Away
5.) We Can
6.) Alone
7.) For You
8.) I Lied
9.) Give Some Time
10.) Look At You Now
11.) She's My California

Two of those, "All For Love" (a cover) and "Jennie Let Me Love You" (original), have already been released as singles. You can listen to part of a live performance of "For You" on YouTube and another one of them performing "Look At You Now." I'd think there's a chance "I Lied" and "We Can" are covers of the Bryan Rice songs, though that's just pure speculation on my part. Bryan Adams did a song called "Run To You," and though of course there are loads of songs with that title, it's in such a style that I could see E.M.D.'s "Run To You" possibly being a cover of it. I'm kind of tempted to guess that "Alone" is the Heart song, though given that Anders Johansson semi-recently did a surprisingly great cover of that, I kind of hope it's not, just because I think as far as the boy band-esque style Anders' version is about as good as you could get. If you've got any other guesses or negation of my guesses, please let me know!

You should know that I am head over heels for you

Sad that you weren't able to spend your last Saturday night watching Melodifestivalen? Why not try to ease the pain with your own Swedish TV mix-and-match (i.e., feel free to skip anything that doesn't interest you) special, taken from the past few months!

I'm sure other performers have used the spinny camera at the big climatic moment in the song trick, but now that Charlotte has so totally claimed it, I can't help thinking of "Hero" right in the middle of this performance of EMD's new single, "Jennie Let Me Love You," which they performed on Let's Dance. Still, I'm totally buying this when it comes out. (Plus, bonus points for the "twisted sheets"/"sore heart beats" rhyme--that should go right up there with "fire"/"desire.")



Anna Sahlene was BRILLIANT in musical gameshow Så ska det låta this past weekend. She was teamed up with Peter Johansson against Carola and Andreas Johnson, and not only did she prove herself (as if it needed further proving) to be a fantastic singer with a great knowledge of music (she and Peter ran away with the contest), she's also made me wish even more for another album from her. Heck, I'd take an album of disco covers at this point, something which we got a taste of from several of her performances. Unfortunately, though seemingly everything her partner performed has been uploaded on YouTube, most of Anna's performances haven't been yet. Still, you can watch the whole thing here if you want to, and you can watch her perform a slowed down version of "Runaway" below.




Time for a commercial break. I'm not sure if this ad is being run in the U.S. or UK (my guess is no, at least on the US front), but it's getting airing in Scandinavian countries, even causing Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence" to creep up the iTunes charts there.



Taking us back into our regularly scheduled programming is Alcazar, performing their fantastic latest single "We Keep On Rockin'" (I was going to rave about it but never did, did I?) on Let's Dance. I'm beyond thrilled to have them back and can't wait to hear some more material from them. I think they're facing off against EMD on some upcoming TV show, too...



There's some great staging going on in September's performance of "Because I Love You" on Bingolotto. She really imbues those opening lines with emotion, and I love the use of lights for the transition into the more "dance" part of the song.



Not from TV--taken from her official website, in fact--but if you want to hear a few clips of Charlotte Perrelli working on songs for her new album in studio, go to near the end of this clip.

And what better way to end our Melodifestivalen substitute than with the track rejected from the 2006 Melodifestival that ended up being the biggest selling single in 2007? Courtesy of Så ska det låta again (though a different week), here's Amy Diamond and Fredrik Swahn singing it after winning.

Nothing seems to mend

Because I continue to believe that someone who made as great an album as Heart.Beats wouldn't toss all that away to join an ill-advised boy band that had no musical value, I'm kind of half-paying attention to E.M.D., the Swedish boy band that Danny Saucedo, Erik Segerstedt, and Mattias Andréasson (all off of Idol) are part of in the hopes that they'll end up coming up with something a whole heck of a lot better than that "All For Love" cover they put out. The latest news from them and the reason for this post is that they've got a new single coming out. They'll be performing it on Let's Dance tonight (with Danny just having been kicked off the show), the song will go to radio on March 24, and it'll be available for purchase April 7 (digitally) and 9 (physically).

The bad news? It's called "Jennie Let Me Love You." With that title, I'm already imagining another song that sounds just like their cover of "All For Love." Let's hope I'm wrong. Danny's official site is trying to sell it all positively, saying that it was written by Michel Zitron, who co-wrote "If Only You." However, as FANTASTIC as I think "If Only You" is, if you changed the arrangement and produced it differently, you wouldn't have that much trouble turning it into a generic power ballad a la "All For Love" (which would not be a good thing, in case there were any doubts)--in other words, I'm not taking anything for granted given the style this group has shown themselves to be pursuing in the past, but would happily accept having my doubts proved to be misplaced.

The album's currently predicted to come out in May.