You look good, look good, you're good lookin'

Another post with no theme to it, just various things I wanted to write about (and some of which I even have written about in comments elsewhere), including some I've been meaning to mention for AGES.

Kleerup's new single "Longing For Lullabies" and instrumental b-side "Tower Of Trellick" are available for purchase as 320 kbps mp3s from 7Digital, regardless of your country. I know not everyone loves the song, but I can't help but hugely applaud that decision from him or his record company--wouldn't it be fantastic if ALL artists let you buy their music without any sort of restrictions, be they DRM or country-based (the rest of the world is getting access to this single just as soon as the Swedes are)? I really hope his album has "Thank You For Nothing" on it--I need that song (in good quality).

Speaking of buying things from 7Digital, I'm glad to finally have Gabriella Cilmi's "Don't Wanna Go To Bed Now," which, as I mentioned earlier, I've wanted ever since PopJustice featured a clip of it. It's a great slice of attitude-filled pop-rock with electro-influenced production and a great beat. Her first single didn't leave much of an impression on me, but in my opinion "Don't Wanna Go To Bed Now," which doesn't really sound like "Sweet About Me," is a song very much worth buying (it too is available on 7Digital, though as a DRM-protected WMA; you can listen to a clip via that 7Digital link too, or here). If she ever came up with an album of songs like this, she'd be a fantastic popstar (I didn't buy the full album--I might, but I get the impression it's maybe not something that would appeal to me as a whole; I'm open to hearing otherwise, though).

I LOVE the new single from Michelle Williams of Destiny's Child. Is it odd that her voice alternates between reminding me of JoJo (well, that's probably the vocal effects on it) and Jamelia? Yeah, actually, no one's going to hear that besides me. There's someone else I'm reminded of too, even more so, though I haven't been able to place who yet...anyway, People's website is playing the song in good quality. "Break The Dawn" is a catchy mid-tempo electronically-processed song that I'd be thrilled to see do well in the U.S. Check out The DJ Plays My Favorite Songs for information about the album.

Madonna's new single: I like it. My response to it was kind of like my response to, say, Eve's "Tambourine"--one of those songs that's a lot of fun in a hypothetically-dancing-in-a-club kind of way and that has sound effects that might otherwise be abrasive but work in that context (even if just imagined). Justin's vocals on it are the first time in a long time I've truly loved his voice. It does feel slow now, though, having got used to the tempo of that French radio rip.

I was really looking forward to the new Mariah album--I'm not sure why, given that I think the only songs from her I know are "Always Be My Baby," "All I Want For Christmas Is You," "Whenever You Call," "Hero," and the singles from The Emancipation of Mimi (that's not a result of me ever being anti-Mariah Carey--I've never been--just a function of my total cluelessness about/not paying attention to music until the past couple of years). Oh, and "When You Believe." I've actually had a real urge to "discover" her back catalogue recently, but I have literally NO IDEA where to begin--what albums are her best? Anyway, to get back to what I was originally talking about, I was disappointed to hear that the next single is supposed to be "Bye Bye" (strung together clips of it here)--I was really hoping (and thinking) it was going to be a big uptempo club banger type song. In the good news department, though, I think I'm going to love "That Chick," which she performed recently (see below).



I'm liking the sound of the recently leaked Beyoncé track "Beautiful Nightmare" (apparently a demo)--it's a darker-sounding pop track.



I completely agree with XO and Nick that the latest Guillemots single is worth listening to. That's an understatement--in my eyes, it's the sort of song that in some alternate universe was a massive crossover smash in the UK and the US, winning over everyone of all music tastes, instead of just getting to a respectable #20 in the UK a few weeks ago. It's a pop-with-guitars track that literally could not be any catchier or any more fun to sing along with. If you've missed it until now, you HAVE to listen to it. One of the best songs of the year, without doubt. I've not bought the album yet, but it's definitely on my to-get list.



I know I mentioned recently that Dirrrty Pop reviewed Taio Cruz's album, but have I ever mentioned on here how much I like the electro-R&B "Come On Girl"? I don't think so, mainly because it's been featured on other well-read sites and so I figure most people probably know about it already. Well, I love it, at any rate, and thought both of the songs Jessica posted, "Fly Away" and "I'll Never Love Again," were fantastic; I'm now really really close to buying his album and probably will do so.



#1 Hits is having "Pop Week" and, though the blog's always a must-read (Nick does an amazing job of finding amazing songs no one else is writing about), I really can't encourage you enough to check it out during this week. I've already played Monday's song, "Disco Bloodbath," a bunch of times.

Speaking of blog recommendations, Don't Stop The Pop (which just reviewed this group's showcase), FizzyPop, Popjustice, and ArjanWrites-back group Red Blooded Women has me really excited--I can't wait to (someday, hopefully!) buy Yaz-sampling pop song "Colour Me Dirty." Speaking of Yaz samples (where Heidi Montag leads, as I'm sure D'luv would point out), the clip of the Yaz-sampling song from another hyped girl group, the Saturdays, that was on the members' MySpaces a little while back sounded good too; it's at least got me interested to hear the whole thing.

Also, Morten Harket of a-ha has a new single called "Darkspace" coming out soon (on Norwegian radios in the next few days and for sale on April 7), with an album out May 19. I really want to like "Darkspace" (I would've liked to like the album's first single, but I sadly didn't), so hpoefully the apparently uptempo, rocky track is a good one. We'll see, I guess.

Edit: oh, and also, Britney's "Break The Ice" is BRILLIANT, but that's a given and I've liked that since the album came out last year--the track hasn't lost any of its shine since then, though.

#20 Justin Timberlake, "What Goes Around.../...Comes Around"

Hey girl, is he everything you wanted in a man?
You know I gave you the world
You had me in the palm of your hand

I think I've generally taken a pretty anti-Justin Timberlake stance on this blog and in general, and I usually try not to to make too big a deal of being "anti" a whole artist, preferring to criticize people who I usually like or see some sort of potential (even if mainly in the past) in (there are some exceptions...one of which we'll be dealing with soon). The arguably disturbing video may not have made Justin seem any more likable to me, but I couldn't help it: when this song became a single, I fell in love. Part of that has to do with the "What Goes Around" part, which makes up the song's main section; lyrically, it may sound concerned with retribution, but it's not particularly aggressive or actively vengeful--it sounds more like karma, and if I could enjoy the lyrically (and, in a way, musically) similar "360" by Josh Hoge, I can hardly hold that against "What Goes Around..." It's sad, but beautiful, and it has this perfect sing-along quality that drew me in against my will. What seals the deal, though, is the interlude or "outro," "...Comes Around," where the kind of Middle Eastern instrumentation in "What Goes Around" is replaced by more producer-oriented noises and synths and the tempo picks up. Justin's attitude changes, too; he becomes a lot less sad and a lot more mocking, laughing at and enjoying his ex's suffering. It's fantastic, and it's a real shame that most radio listeners weren't able to hear it.

Find it on: FutureSex/LoveSounds

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

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

Anthony Callea's Playlist--An Analysis

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Flaunt It

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

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

J'étais sans toi

Greetings from alternately rainy and far too hot North Carolina! I feel so out of the music loop, but the ocean and beach are helping make up for that (even if I've already managed to burn horribly). Here's what I've managed to learn, mainly from MTV:

• I'm not hugely excited by Justin Timberlake's new music video--or rather, even after watching Making the Video, I still don't understand it (what's the whole spy plot about?)
• More video news: Nick Lachey's new video for "I Can't Hate You Anymore" is nothing exciting, but, even though the song is pretty similar to "What's Left Of Me," "I Can't Hate You Anymore" is an improvement. I'm holding out hope that, after getting these emotional issues off his chest in this album, Nick could go on to be a good male popstar (we could use some more in the U.S.), even though it's probably more likely he'll fade out of the public eye.
• I tried to watch Jessica Simpson and Fergie's new music videos, but since it was TRL playing them, I only saw about a minute of each and cheering covered up the audio for fifteen seconds on either end.
• Lance Bass is coming out. I could have sworn my sister told me this months ago, so it can't be very surprising, but good for him.
• I saw a commercial for Stefy's song "Chelsea" on MTV, which was exciting--I don't expect the song to break records, but I'd like to see it do well. UPDATE to say that I just saw TRL preview a clip of the video, which probably means it's been floating around on YouTube for weeks, but the more publicity, the better.
• Hugely belated congratulations to Darren Hayes for getting married!
• We met the brother of one of the boys on So You Think You Can Dance (the one who danced to "London Bridge" last night) at the beach, which is the closest I've come to meeting a celebrity...unless you count seeing the runners-up in Trading Spaces's million dollar home contest.

Onto today's post...only one song, and I'm not hugely excited about it, but it's all right (and I didn't bring my music collection with me, so I don't have many options).

Thierry Amiel was the runner-up to Jonatan Cerrada on the first season of Nouvelle Star. He's released one album so far and has another scheduled to be released this November. I don't own his first CD, so I may be mistaken in my judgement that most of the songs on it seem a little boring--maybe it was an attempt to prove that, though he lost to Jonatan, he was the better and more serious artist. His music is distinctively French; it doesn't follow the typical mold that, say, most U.S. pop songs do.

Sans toi--Aha! Another moment for my French skills to shine. I'm going to tentatively guess this title translates to "Without You." I hope so, because that's what this song feels like--the chorus seems like Thierry's crying out (not in anger, but not really regular sadness either--maybe desperation?) after being abandoned. It's not a ballad--it has too much energy for that. The chorus is easily the best part of the song, but the rest does an admirable job building up to that chorus cry-out.

To buy a hard copy of Thierry Amiel's CD, Paradoxes, go here; to buy a digital copy, go here.

Next up: probably Norway, but definitely back to English. I should be home on Sunday or Monday, so regular updates should return then.

thierry amiel nouvelle star