She's devastating, manipulating, no good

Hi all! Just something quick tonight--not a song to change the world, but still fun.

I know I've featured Jimmy Jansson a couple of times before, but I thought today I'd share one of the few English songs I know he's done. I know he's got a few English language versions of some of his songs with the group the Poets but, as far as I know, he's only recorded a couple of solo songs in English. He's Swedish and has competed in Melodifestivalen several times, most recently this year with "Amanda," a very McFly-esque song that I loved and that made it to the second chance round but no further.

Miss Julie--I'm pretty sure this is from Jimmy's younger years, and you can hear that in the sound, to some degree. Actually, come to think of it, that has to be the case, because he's pretty young in this performance of it, so I'm thinking it's from either during Fame Factory or very soon afterwards (if Jimmy's current image befuddles you a little bit, it's worth taking a look at that performance, as it shows him before his styling went overboard--he looks much more natural and it's easier to understand how he was something of a teen idol; even if you don't go that far, it's all very "aww, bless, how sweet/cute!", which I think has influenced my perception of him now). It doesn't have quite the bounce of some of his other songs, nor some of their originality (though "Amanda" bears quite a lot of McFly similarities, "Som Sommaren" and "Godmorgon Världen--or even most of the songs on his most recent album--really don't, beyond being pop with guitars) or, to be entirely honest, all of their quality (it's good, but far from his best), but it's still quite sweet pop-rock and does have the advantage of being in English. Plus, I really can't argue with any song that mentions Moulin Rouge, even if it's not the movie.

To buy the album Fame Factory Vol. 6, which has this song on it as well as others by various Fame Factory contestants, go here (physical). I'm still really enjoying Jimmy's most recent album, Sån E Jag, and he's got some good songs on previous albums, so I recommend listening to some previous clips if you think you might like to hear more from him.

Next up: I'm not sure--maybe that something Danish.

Du är vild

Look, I'm sorry, but I love Jimmy Jansson. His music falls exactly into one of my favorite subgenres of pop; "Amanda," his Melodifestivalen entry this year, sounded very McFly-esque, and given my incredible love for McFly, it should come as no surprise that I loved it. Since I forgot to do the singles review thing for Paul last week, I missed my chance to rail against the Jonas Brothers. To be fair, I don't know very much of their original material, but at the very least they seem to sap every song they cover of any strength or quality it originally had. To me, they--at least in those songs--are an example of how to do fun pop-rock poorly; Jimmy Jansson, on the other hand, does it very well, and manages to slip in practically everything that makes that type of music great--catchy songs that don't let the guitars overwhelm the melody, repeated syllables, and handclaps, as well as loads of energy--I love it. (For more information about Jimmy himself, you can read my first post about him here.)

Vild och vacker--there are a lot of great songs on Jimmy's new album, and some that might even be better than this one, but I think this one might be the most immediate, especially for people who don't speak Swedish, so I'm going with it. It was also the b-side for "Amanda," which surprised me--if he was planning on another single from the album, this seems like it would be one of the logical choices; it's very singalongable and catchy--just wait for the chorus, and you're sure to hear what I mean. Although it's very easy to draw comparisons between Jimmy and McFly--I do so myself all the time--his songs often aren't actually ones I can imagine McFly releasing; he manages to be reminiscent of what I associate with McFly (and a bit of Busted in this song, especially whenever that high-pitched noise comes in) without actually making songs that I would expect McFly to make. There's also a certain rushing sound a lot of his songs manage to capture, and rely on--"Som sommaren" and "Vi kan gunga" don't show it (and actually, "Vild och vacker" doesn't show it too well either, though there are hints); out of his hits, "Godmorgon världen" probably is this best example. If you listen to his albums, though, it's a lot more prevalent.

To buy Jimmy Jansson's third album, Sån E Jag, go here (physical) or here (digital). I very much recommend it if you like this style of music and don't mind listening to lyrics you can't understand. There are a lot of great songs on it, but I'd especially say to listen out for "Farväl," which is very good (I'm just about dying to post it, and may do so in the future, even though I'm not sure how well it would go over; still, to me, it's one of those songs that casually sums up how to do this sort of pop-rock well). The album's also more diverse (and more mature) than one might expect, though it's not genre-hopping. I'm sure a lot of people won't like it--I can't imagine any music reviewer is going to give it positive reviews--but I'd defend its quality (or at least the quality of some of the songs on it) to anyone.

Next up: maybe that French song, finally, but who knows.

If you wanna get with me, boy, you gotta keep it real

A few months ago (can it really have been that long already?), I wrote about Danish singer Mukupa. As part of a group, she was one of the pioneers of women in hip-hop and rap, but her solo album 2nd Base is incredibly poppy, with the occasional Verbalicious-esque rap thrown in. When I first wrote about her, one of the songs I featured was "Stop Stop," a pop song with a little bit of faux-R&B mixed in. Her album also features a remix of it, and--somewhat unusually for me--I think I prefer it to the original.

Stop Stop (Fu Tourists Remix)--I know those first five seconds aren't hugely promising, but stick with it, because once you get the real beat and swooshing background effects, it'll be a hard song to resist. The verses are sped up and this remix smartly keeps (and plays up) the "aahhh-aahhh"'s, but it's those moments like the one just after the beginning that make this song worth listening to--they're "throw your hands up and forget you troubles" moments.

To buy Mukupa's album 2nd Base, go here (physical) or here (digital).

Matt Willis's new single is out in its physical version on April 2, with the digital release a week beforehand. It's a cover of the Primitives' "Crash" and he's got a clip of it on his MySpace--it doesn't sound better than Shebang's version and it's not about to beat "Up All Night" (not much does), but it's not bad. My hope that he succeeds may be influencing my perspective here, though.

The video for Gareth Gates's new single "Changes" comes out this Sunday--hopefully, it'll be on YouTube soon afterwards!

Edit: I forgot--Jimmy Jansson and Sebastian's new albums come out today (and maybe others I've forgotten about, too)! You can listen to clips from Sebastian's album The Vintage Virgin on the Swedish iTunes here (I haven't really gotten to do so yet, though I will say that trigger metaphors are overused in music); I haven't found anywhere to preview Jimmy's album Sån E Jag yet (besides his official site, which has clips of two of the songs on it--click on "Musik"), but I'll let you know if I do. Incidentally, someone seems to have made a mistake, because a lot of the digital music sites selling Jimmy's song "Amanda" have, instead of a picture of Jimmy, the cover of Jessica Andersson's "Kom" accompanying the song--slight difference. You can buy Sebastian's album here and Jimmy's album here.

Next up: probably that group from Belgium.

Show me what it takes

Very stop-start so far...hopefully it all improves...Jessica vs. Elin up first.

Edit: I basically saw Elin's performance as a series of still images, so I can't judge...and now Anna Book is saying something about her...looked good, though!

Edit: and now the Ark are speaking about Jessica. Oh, Jessica, you might not have been comfortable in those hotpants last year, but did you have to go in the complete opposite direction? What is that shirt?

Edit: between these two, I'm not sure that it makes a huge difference to me...I think I might give Elin the edge, in terms of my preference, but it's very up in the air. I sort of have a sentimental attachment to Jessica.

Edit: ...and Jessica's through to the next round of this second chance thing! She was too cute holding that stuffed tiger, so I'm happy with this, too.

Edit: Jimmy vs. Sanna now...ooo, it's like Grease! They're going to race! I should support Sanna here, and I love her song, but I just love Jimmy's song more...he's who I'm rooting for.

Edit: yup, I still adore that song; even now, when I hear it I feel a strong desire to start bouncing around the room. It's so exactly what I love!

Edit...ohh, but I do love Sanna's song, too; both are in my top 10. My two favorites in the second chance round, and they're up against each other; can't we just send them both through instead?

Edit: Sanna's through--no surprise, and I am happy for her, but Jimmy's song is just so fun! I'm hoping she beats Jessica and goes to the Globen. Next up is Uno & Irma vs. Sonja, and I'm definitely hoping Sonja wins this; her ballad is so much better than Uno & Irma's.

Edit: there is something endearing about Uno & Irma's song, but--ooo, now Sonja's singing a Shirley song! And the audience is clapping along! See, people want her back!

Edit: Sonya through--good! I'm not sure who I want to win out of Magnus Uggla vs. Nanne--I think Nanne, though; and if I want Nanne to win, do I want her to beat Sonya? I'm not sure...I think so, but hmm...

Edit: Nanne and Magnus are playing chess--I think Nanne's the U.S. and Magnus is the Soviet Union?

Edit: Nanne's just performed, and--ooo! Now Mans is talking about Nanne. I love Mans's song--it's what I'm hoping wins the whole thing.

Edit: I just live this middle marchy bit of Magnus's song. And he really puts on a great show.

Edit: Magnus through. There will be some very unhappy people out there. I think I would've preferred Nanne, but I'm not hugely angry about it.

Edit: I've only ever seen Jessica's performance when the stream was very stop-start, so I've never noticed how she rips the tie off a man and then he takes it and puts it back on--I guess they didn't want her dancing around with a tie or something lying on the floor to interfere with strutting! I should be hoping for Sanna win more than I am--I want her to win, I think, but not as much as I expected.

Edit: lost my stream...and just when I was getting all optimistic about it staying.

Edit:...it's back! For the end of Sanna's performance.

Edit: some clips from the past--maybe past second chancers in the final? We get to see Barbados with Magnus, Alcazar, Bubbles, and Shirley Clamp, among others.

Edit: clips continue--oh my gosh, "Alcastar"! "Alla flickor"! Also, Magnus Backlund and Rednex. Yup, I'm pretty sure this is past second chance contestants' performances. I'm feeling all nostalgic now.

Edit: Sonja's just performed. Who do I want to win out of her and Magnus? I have no idea.

Edit: the host is smelling Jessica and Sanna now--weird! Just tell us who's made it.

Edit: nope, not telling us yet; Magnus is performing.

Edit: I've decided Magnus is too dangerous in the finals--I want Sonja to win this round.

Edit: great performance from Magnus again, and it is a fun song, but I hold to what I said--hopefully Sonja would just further split the ballad votes in the final, whereas I can see Magnus doing quite well. And if I want Mans to win, the less competition, the better.

Edit: Sanna through to the final!

Edit: and Sonja through! I'm surprised, but pleasantly so! Good for her.

Make me believe you

After a night of barely being able to sleep because I kept feeling compelled to go listen to the songs from this semifinal, I've reached a few conclusions.

My two absolute favorites that I'm desperate to see do well are definitely Magnus and Måns. Their songs are both bounce-around-the-room-like-a-crazy-person tunes that are instantly amazing (I know, now I'm overusing that word more than last year's Eurovision hosts) and I've run out of adjectives to describe them.

After that, I think my favorite is the Attic feat. Therese, though I don't expect it to do too well. Still, in my dream world, it would make it to the second chance round. The second second chance slot--well, I'd probably give it to Sebastian, just narrowly beating out Nanne, but, with performances, I'm sure Nanne will deserve to do very well.

Some random news about some Melodifestivalen contestants:

Jimmy Jansson and Sebastian have both updated their sites and have albums coming out in early March, both I've which I'm planning on buying. Jimmy's got a bunch of pictures on it (not necessarily new), but I think this one is the classiest:


Sebastian's new album is going to be called The Vintage Virgin (really?) and he'll be previewing some of the songs from it on his site.

Also on the subject of photos, this is definitely my favorite one of Måns:


So, anyhow, Magnus and Måns! Please, Sweden! I'm most worried about Måns--I could see him not even making it to the second chance, but, based on song along, he unquestionably deserves to be in the final, as does Magnus. Their songs--I can't even express how good they are.

Här är jag född

Awwww!

Congratulations to Sandra Dahlberg and Jimmy Jansson (they competed in the same season of Fame Factory and have also both competed in--and, in Jimmy's case, is also currently competing in--Melodifestivalen)--Sandra just gave birth to their son Vilmer (eighteen days after expected!)! Ever since I read about the upcoming birth on Schlagerprinsessan, I've had a new favorite word, and I figure now is as good as time as any to share it with you all:

schlagerbebis

Seriously--is that not the most adorable world ever? How can you not want to have a schlagerbaby?

I think they may be trying to create the ultimate Melodifestivalen contestant.

Honestly, though, congratulations to the both of them!

(Picture credit: Expressen)

Don't let them take your life

My last minute hopes, before seeing the performances: Jimmy and the Ark to the final, Cosmo4 (what was I thinking yesterday when I said the chorus needed to be a little catchier? It's already incredibly catchy!) and Regina to the second chance. All the predictions seem to have the Ark making it to the final, though, so I'm throwing the weight of my "wishing and hoping" energy behind Jimmy and Cosmo4, but Regina is catching up fast.

Edit: worst. stream. ever. I missed Regina, saw a couple seconds of the end of Marie's (it seemed like she got an awful lot of applause...I'm worried), missed the first half of Jimmy's, missed most of Jessica's, missed all of that duet, and missed the last two-thirds of the Ark, and what I did see of everything was basically a series of still pictures. Sheesh. I've switched over to the radio now (P4 Melodifest here), but I can't even begin to evaluate the performances. Hopefully someone puts them up on YouTube soon. We're in the first round of voting now.

Edit 2: the top 5: Marie, Cosmo4, Jimmy, Jessica, and the Ark--I'll take that! Actually, I'm very happy with that. Now, let Marie place fifth, and I'll be thrilled.

Edit 3: the stream is back for me, though it's not very good...

Edit 4: the Ark go direct to the final...

Edit 5: Jimmy and Jessica to the second chance round...Marie's probably going to beat Cosmo4, but there's no justice if she does...

Edit 6:...yup, Marie to the final. It's not that I hate the song, but it's not exciting, it's not what I want from this contest. Poor Cosmo4--I absolutely love their song! I hope it does well on the charts afterwards. Out of all the girls, they were easily the best, and they're somewhere in my not-yet-mapped-out top 3.

Edit 7: final edit, I think--Jessica will be facing Elin in the second chance round. With one exception (maybe two), I'm not really excited about the final yet, despite a lot of songs in the contest I like. I'm so glad Jimmy made it to at least the second chance round, though--I really like his song (but then, I adore McFly, so that's probably not surprising). It's really a shame about Cosmo4, though--I was really hoping they would do well! If Regina ended up eight, I'm guessing there was something wrong with her performance, as the song was great, but maybe not, given last week--I'm still upset about Andreas's placing, even if the whole "Dandy Andy and the Funky Nuns" thing was sort of weird ("Move" is out as a single on March 5, by the way!).

Next week has a lot of people I actually know, too--Nanne Grönvall, Magnus Carlsson, Sebastian Karlsson, Sonya, the Attic feat. Therese, and a former Idol contestant from the same season as Sebastian, Måns Zelmerlöw (I've never seen him sing before, though), who also won Let's Dance. I can't wait!

Next up: probably Swedish dance music.

Lookin' for somebody, not a wimp with a tan

Wow! I can't even begin to choose my top three from this round! ...which means I may be forced to do something I was hoping to avoid, but I might not be able to help it. Some people I wasn't expecting to have really surprised me (and thank goodness they did, becaues I was a little worried about being let down near the beginning). I'll update in a few minutes.

All right, in no particular order, my top five (full song titles and artists, in addition to being labeled on the song itself, can be found here):

Something about a name, sung by a boy (doesn't Jimmy sort of sound like McFly? I'm tempted to say first album McFly, but those "ooo"'s sound an awful lot like something out of "Star Girl," don't they? Put this in the "everyone else will hate it, but Poster Girl loves it" file. It may sound young, but it's so much fun! Easily one of my favorites of the competition so far. I'd love to see it do well; even though it might not be the greatest choice if Sweden wants to do as well as possible at Eurovision, could it at least make it to the finals, please? And do well in the charts afterwards?)

Something about a name, sung by girls (a helicopter! It opens with helicopter sound effects! One of the hallmarks of a great pop song--if we include videos, Matt Willis's "Up All Night," Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right," and the Click Five's "Just The Girl" all had helicopters opening their songs. It's got some brilliant lyrics, too, especially in that first verse. I wish the chorus was a little catchier, but I still love this song. Really fun, very poppy and upbeat. Robpop will probably love it.)

Something about worrying (I cannot wait to see this performed! It seems like everyone thinks this will make it to the finals, and that, to say the least, is a very good thing.)

Something about once believing, maybe (I'd never heard of this group before now, but I'm going to have to find out more about them! This is excellent! I sort of wish it was sung really energetically by a girl, because I think that could have made it really fabulous, an absolute impossible-to-listen-to-without-dancing stormer, but it's still great--synthy and super-danceable)

Something about coming (Jessica's song, and I'm not as excited about it as I was hoping to be. Still, maybe that's just because I had really high expectations, and I'm hoping it's going to grow on me. Maybe the performance will do it? I'm posting it because I'm quite sure I'll love it in no time. Uptempo and poppy.)

You can listen to all the songs here; click on the pink arrow next to the artist's name. Malin's song is pretty in a dreamy singer-songwritery way, but I think I prefer Regina's song, which I probably could have posted because I like a lot, too. Actually, why not?

Something about being a star (disco-ish, but not the sort with over-the-top-singing...sort of that "cool disco" style. There's a tiny skip-ish thing near the beginning...I'll go back and fix it ASAP. I already like this a lot, and I could see it jumping up the list in terms of my favorites pretty quickly. For the moment, though, there are other songs that I'd much rather see make it to the final.)

These are all web rips, so let me know if there's something wrong with the audio. Most importantly, don't forget to preorder the album!

Next up: I'm not sure...possibly more Swedish stuff, but I'll try to avoid that if I can.

Här kommer jag

Swedish singer Jimmy Jansson is perhaps inextricably linked to Fame Factory, on which he was a contestant (he's steadily dating one of the other contestants from the show, and is expecting a child with her, which I can't believe--2004, when he released his debut album, wasn't that long ago, and he seemed so young!). However, he's also had several experiences with Melodifestivalen. Before Fame Factory, Jimmy competed in Melodifestivalen in 2002 as part of a group called the Poets, though he didn't make it out of semifinals. In 2005, he competed as a solo artist and made it to the finals, placing sixth. He'll also be competing in Melodifestivalen this coming year. He's released two albums so far and is working on a third, I think, but both these songs are from his first album.

Som Sommaren--I know it's the middle of winter (if you live in the Northern Hemisphere), so this song couldn't really be more out of place. Not only does the title probably translate to something about summer, the song itself is full of a bouncy happiness and youthfulness that makes it feel like it couldn't be anything than a summer song--like it's meant to be played under maximum sunbeams. Jimmy's voice is a bit different--it's neither what I'd expect from a teen idol nor someone singing such happy songs as this; I'd be less surprised to hear it in a punk-pop environment, but I'm glad he's chosen to go in this direction.

Godmorgon Världen--less "bop along in the summer" and more "fun with guitars!". I'm going to guess the title means "Good morning world," but this isn't a sweet ode to the rising sun--yes, it may be more flowingly melodic than "Som Sommaren," but the light use of guitars drives the song along at a decent pace and brings the song an up and down feel (which "Som Sommaren" also had, I know, but this is more wave-like, whereas "Som Sommaren" was more staccato). The ending is a bit too abrupt, but it's still a great song overall. It's difficult to compete with "Som Sommaren" for pure catchiness ("Som-som-sommaren!" is just so easy to chant along with), but I think I may prefer "Godmorgon Världen"--maybe because some parts of it could be called pretty, or maybe because it feels like it might yield longer-term benefits (sketchy reasoning there), or maybe just because it's not summer yet.

To buy Jimmy Jansson's debut solo album, Flickan Från Det Blå, go here (physical) or here (digital). If you like your pop with guitars but not in the shouty rock-out style, I definitely recommend listening to more of his songs.

In music updates, Go:Audio have another new song on their MySpace. It doesn't beat "Made Up Stories," but then really, what could? I have such big hopes for this band, mainly in terms of quality but also commercially. There would be a nice parallelism, given my favorite album this year and my favorite album last year, if they were to make my favorite album of 2007, but I'm going to try to not get my expectations too high.

Next up: maybe that remix I mentioned yesterday