Melodifestivalen may have finished introducing new songs for the year, but there's still one thing we fans have to look forward to (besides Andra Chansen and the final): Melodifestival-related albums.
I'm not just talking about this year's Melodifestival album (and its exciting demos). We also have a number of artists who competed in this year's contest who are releasing albums. All except the last of the albums listed below is out already or will be released in the next few weeks. International customers should be able to buy any of the CDs listed below from Bengans or Megastore.
Melody Club have already released Human Harbour. You can listen to previews here.
Previews of In The Club, the new album from Danny, can be listened to here. It's only eight tracks, with one repeated from Set Your Body Free and including his earlier unnecessary cover of "In Your Eyes", but otherwise they almost all sound pretty great. Thanks to Swedish Stereo and Scandipop for the tip!
Making up for Danny's dearth of songs is Anniela's Electric, which, at fifteen tracks, includes the English version of her entry "Elektrisk" (and, somewhat bafflingly, a cover of September's "Sin Of My Own") and is out March 14. The quality ratio probably won't be quite as high, but I imagine will get some fun tracks out of it. Preview clips are here.
Swingfly is repackaging his debut album with his Melodifestival entry and a new song with Pauline. It's out March 4 and is titled Awesomeness: An Introduction To Swingfly. Yes, really. That's going straight in this year's "Best Brilliantly Ridiculous Pop Words" contenders.
Linda Bengtzing gives us one new track, "Män i uniform," on her greatest hits album. Preview it here.
Sanna Nielsen has a new album out. Unfortunately, the previews have left me underwhelmed, especially considering the nice surprise of her Celine Dion-like last album, but maybe the songs sound better in full. Thanks to Schlagerfiasko for the preview link and to Scandipop who earlier debuted clips.
Anders Fernette's years-in-the-making album Run comes out March 11. His record label uploaded a few new songs from it to SoundCloud and they pretty much sound like I expected they would--if he's never been to your taste before, they won't win you over, but they work for me (in, admittedly, a not incredibly long term way).
We don't have any new preview for Le Kid's album, but we do have a title--and, predictably for this group, it's amazing: Oh, Alright! Yes, still one of my most anticipated albums of the past few years, even if "Oh My God" did underwhelm me.
My jaw dropped (for the second time, but we'll get to that in a minute) at the news that Linda Bengtzing had won her semifinal and would be advancing straight to the final. It's welcome news for someone who loves Linda as much as I do and for anyone won over by her energetic, explosive schlager. Still, considering "E det fel på mig" is, at first few listens, not as good as her previous three entries and her staging was a little messy--not only did it seem to have taken several steps backwards into the past after the flirty, modern performance of "Hur svårt kan det va?", even the traditional old-fashioned schlager elements weren't executed as well as they could have been for the first two-thirds of the song (though Linda was a star, as always)--I was shocked that she'd been the night's top vote-getter. Shocked but, even if feeling that it was a teeny bit undeserved, pleased.
Poor Melody Club ended up in seventh. I had inklings of trouble when I realized Kristofer's vocals weren't transferring too well to the Melodifestival context (he has a quirky voice which doesn't necessarily sound traditionally "strong" even when he's on form), but I never truly considered they'd be outside of the top five. I hope they get a radio hit out of "The Hunter"--it's the best they've sounded in years (and features a great guitar solo--seriously, how we can we have a drought of good guitar solos for so long and then have multiple so close together?)--and hope their upcoming album is of equal quality.
Nicke Borg drove the knife in even further by going straight to the final instead of Love Generation. A slick performance with pretty good vocals (a few of the girls were less good than the other two, but none were awful) and a good song had me hoping the girls would give the Melodifestival final a boost of modernity and international appeal, but even outside of the "how do we want to present Sweden to the rest of the world" dilemma, the whole package was deserving of advancing further than it did. Love Generation still have a chance to make it to the final. Unfortunately, they were sent to the top half of the second chance bracket, which means they'll be facing off against my other favorite AC contenders, Loreen and Jenny Silver.
Still, as we Melodifestival fans drown our sorrows, there's one thing to comfort us (well, one thing besides lovely Linda's fantastic direkt-till-Globen achievement): this year's songs are all finally on sale. You can buy the deluxe box set celebrating the past ten years here.
Twitter, the place I would usually go to with my quick, fairly uninformed opinions, seems to be down. I need somewhere to vent my first, unconsidered thoughts about the full versions of the fourth Melodifestival semifinal tracks, though, so here we go.
I'm hugely pleased with Melody Club's song; they may have just swept straight into my personal first place of this final (with--shhh--a chance at ending up my favorite song of Melodifestivalen 2011). That surprises me a little--I haven't truly loved their recent singles, so I expected a "like but not adore" case with "The Hunter"--but I'm thrilled about that surprise. Finally, we've got a pop-rock entry that really delivers.
I'm still a little concerned that Linda Bengtzing's "E det fel på mig" isn't quite up to her usual (incredibly high) standards, but I'm hoping in proper quality it will shine more. It's still energetic schlager which I know I'll enjoy, though. I'll definitely get swept up in the moment.
Love Generation's "Dance Alone" is a nice modern pop entry. I like it and will probably play it a lot over the course of the year, but it's difficult for me to say more because I keep getting drawn back to "The Hunter" every time I think I should listen to "Dance Alone" again.
Anders Fernette's "Run" is basically what I hoped it would be: pleasant pop-rock, light on the rock, with a nice melody to it (better than his past couple of singles, too). It still has no chance here, but hey, at least we're finally getting that album.
Linda Pritchard's "Alive" is the sort of ballad which probably, well, comes alive in its live performance. I do love the dramatic middle eight. "Something came alive" isn't my favorite key line for a song, though.
Nicke Borg's voice is unfortunately not my favorite kind of rock voice; in the hands of a performer with a less raspy, nasal voice, I could see myself enjoying "Leaving Home."
Julia Alvgard's "Better Or Worse" is better than its likely result in the contest will indicate. It's pleasant mid-tempo R&B-pop which I'm not enthusiastic about but which is fine.
Lasse Stefanz...well, it makes me feel like someone horribly uneducated making grand pronouncements about things they really know nothing about to say it, but I'd enjoy this song more with another singer. I know, I know, Lasse Stefanz are a much-loved dansband so there's clearly appeal in Olle's voice to many people who know much more about this style of music than I do, but I wish someone else was singing it. Not some glam female diva--just a different dansband.
Performances taken out of the equation, my personal preferences would probably be Melody Club and Linda Bengtzing direct to Globen and Love Generation and Anders Fernette to the second chance round (with Love Generation to the second half of the bracket and making it to the final while Anders goes into the top half, with Loreen making it to the final). Clearly that's not going to happen, but I'll be hoping for Melody Club, Love Generation, and Linda to advance (and whichever one of them failed to make it directly to the final going in the bottom half of the second chance bracket). I'm very nervous, though...
It's almost a week away, but this fourth semifinal of Melodifestivalen already has me worried...about results. I'm much more optimistic about song quality. As always, I have absolutely no inside sources, so I am indebted to the below mentioned sites for their information.
Melody Club, "The Hunter" (Kristofer Östergren/Erik Stenemo/Jon Axelsson/Nicklas Stenemo) Melody Club entering Melodifestivalen is a bit like the Ark entering in 2007 in some ways--a credible band with a sound not known for being in the contest--and different in others--I'd say Melody Club are a little more on a downward trend in popularity than the Ark were when they entered. The group, which recently lost a member due to personal legal issues, also has a style that is more synth-inflected pop-rock than the Ark's '70s rock preference.
Melody Club says that the self-penned "The Hunter," taken from their new album (out in March), isn't jaunty but is fast-paced, surging, and at points in a minor key.
To watch: Melody Club performing second album single "Baby (Stand Up)" back in 2004
Julia Alvgard, "Better Or Worse" (Manne Hjelm/Ola Holstad/Joar Lenz) Like Jonas Matsson in the first semifinal, Julia's participation in Melodifestivalen is the result of winning the Web Joker contest Swedish broadcaster SVT ran this year for the second time. As a result, we've heard a version of the ballad "Better Or Worse," though it will have been tweaked for its television appearance.
To watch listen: well, there aren't exactly many options, but thankfully we do have another song of hers which Damian uploaded to YouTube. Here's "I Was."
Lasse Stefanz, "En blick och nånting hander" (Alexander Bard/Ola Håkansson/Tim Norell) Alexander Bard, songwriter behind Army of Lovers, early Alcazar, and BWO, may be the most internationally famous of that set of songwriters, but Ola and Tim found some middling international success with Secret Service (of "Flash In The Night"). Together they made up the Swedish equivalent of Stock Aitken Waterman (and even won Melodifestivalen in 1989 with Tommy Nilsson's "En dag"). Factor in an incredibly popular dansband and you've got a definite '80s flashback vibe, though Lasse Stefanz has continued with success into the present day. That's an understatement, actually--I wouldn't rush to brush off Lasse Stefanz's potential to do well this Saturday.
The group nearly competed in Melodifestivalen in 2009 with the song that became Thorleifs' "Sweet Kissin' in the Moonlight." This time, their lead singer says they described what they wanted in a song to the songwriter trio, who then made sure the song fit their requirements. He added that people will remember the last five seconds of the song for a while.
To watch: well, it's not the ideal choice based on song, but so you're viewing a decent quality video of something from the past ten years, here they are performing 2007 single "På egna vägar."
Linda Pritchard, "Alive" (Oscar Görres/Fredrik Kempe) Linda has been a background dancer at Melodifestivalen and was in the early stages of one season of Idol, but her biggest exposure thus far came when she performed "You're Making Me Hot-Hot-Hot" in last year's Melodifestival.
Linda failed to make it out of her semifinal then, but she returns this year with "Alive." It's described as a vulnerable, powerful, stripped-down ballad written for her based on her demo version of last year's "Hollow" (sung in the contest by Peter Jöback). Linda says it is about feeling lonely but then realizing you are loved already.
Fredrik Kempe is of course well-known in Melodifestivalen at this point (with previous ballad entries including Sarah Dawn Finer's "I'm Moving On," "Hollow," and Simon Forsberg's entry this past weekend). Oscar is best known for his work with Danny as well as E.M.D.'s "Baby Goodbye," though he also co-wrote Linda's own "Miracle."
To watch: Linda performing "You're Making Me Hot-Hot-Hot" at least year's Melodifestival.
Anders Fernette, "Run" (Desmond Child/Negin Djafari/Hugo Lira/Ian-Paolo Lira/Thomas Gustafsson) The Fame Factory winner and demo and background singer for many Cheiron-associated writers, the former Anders Johansson (or Anders J) floated through the '00s with a few hits but, especially in the second half of the decade, usually on the fringes of pop awareness. He's released a lot of music but is certainly no institution in Sweden, so this is a chance for the frequently one-man-Westlife-meets-Bryan-Adams sounding Anders to finally establish himself (and put out that album for which he's been releasing singles for the past four years).
Anders was originally meant to compete with "Don't Stop," but since songwriter Carl Falk had posted it on his MySpace, it was disqualified. Instead, he's performing a song from Desmond Child, famous for his '80s rock songs (Bon Jovi's "Livin' on a Prayer" and "You Give Love A Bad Name," Aerosmith's "Dude (Looks Like A Lady) amongst others), Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca," Katy Perry's "Wakin' Up in Vegas," and about a million other songs. Let's hope this is something he put actually effort into as opposed to just reaching into a bottom drawer to fish out. The other songwriters have likewise written a conglomeration of songs (they fall in the "names pop up on random album tracks around the world" category), though nothing as internationally successful as Desmond's. They have worked with Anders before, including on ballads "If It's All I Ever Do" and "Without You."
Anders says "Run" is an uptempo song but more serious than "Don't Stop" with a simple but effective chorus that requires a good singer. "Run" was originally meant to be a single from a Celine Dion album that never happened.
To watch: the vast majority of videos of Anders performing are of dubious quality. Here's one of the more tolerable ones, Anders performing his cover of Eric Carmen's "Hungry Eyes."
Linda Bengtzing, "E de fel på mig" (Pontus Assarsson/Thomas G:son/Jörgen Ringqvist/Daniel Barkman) Linda, despite her albums' tendency to have more pop-rock than ninety-five percent of people want from her, is known for one thing in Melodifestivalen, the contest that made her famous (though she'd been in Fame Factory before): schlager. Big, shiny, energetic, often flirty schlager. All her previous three entries--which include some of the best schlager you'll hear--have eventually made it to the final and she's improved significantly as a performer since her 2005 debut with "Alla flickor."
Pontus and Thomas are Eurovision national final veterans most associated with schlager, having written songs like Fame's "Vindarna vänder oss," Friends's "The One That You Need" and "Lysnna till ditt hjärta," and Carola's "Invincible." Jörgen, Daniel, and Pontus co-wrote Pernilla Wahlgren's "Jag vill om du vågar" from last year's Melodifestival.
Linda describes "E de fel på mig" as a typical Linda track, "a bulldozer on a ninety-degree slope without brakes. Unstoppable." She says it's about living a safe life but still dreaming of something else.
To watch: "Jag ljuger så bra" and "Alla flickor" may sneak slightly ahead of her 2009 entry "Hur svårt kan det va?" in my affections, but her performance of the latter is light years ahead of her performances of the other two, so here's "Hur svårt kan det va?"
Nicke Borg, "Leaving Home" (Jojo Borg Larsson/Nicke Borg/Fredrik Thomander/Anders Wikström) The lead singer of the long-running rock group Backyard Babies goes solo with a rock song that is somewhat different from his group's material. Nicke says "Leaving Home" is a classic power ballad, at first stripped-down and then hard-hitting.
In addition to being co-written by Nicke and his wife, "Leaving Home" includes assistance from the Epicentre team of Fredrik Thomander and Anders Wikström. Their catchy hooks are often displayed in pop songs (for example, the oft-covered "Love Is All Around" and Alexander Schöld's "Den första svalan" in the 2009 Melodifestival), but given Nicke's rock style, their work with the Backyard Babies, the Poodles, Erik Grönwall, and Anders's membership in hard rock band Treat may be more relevant.
To watch: Nicke as part of Backyard Babies performing "Abandon."
Love Generation, "Dance Alone" (RedOne) The four-person girl group follows up last year's self-titled semi-hit with another uptempo pop song from RedOne (most internationally famous for his work with Lady GaGa but who worked with Swedish acts like A*Teens and Darin before that), clips of which have been circulating after previews were posted in digital music stores.
To watch: unfortunately most of the group's performance videos are of low quality. Here's one from last summer of them performing "Love Generation."
Personal notes: LINDA BENGTZING LINDA BENGTZING LINDA BENGTZING. This week is pretty close to being all about Linda for me--I'd sacrifice any other entry to get her through. That said, she has a high standard to maintain, something which is going to work on my nerves until we hear reports on songs in the middle of the week. Worries about song quality and competition are guaranteed to have my mental state on a roller coaster all week.
Despite being quite happily able to "leave" half of Anders's songs, I really enjoy the other half and have tons of good will towards him. I'll be crossing my fingers that the has a good song. I'm never excited to hear that a song is recycled (and it sitting around without being snapped up in the intervening time isn't a great sign), but I'm still hopeful. I'm not sure how he's going to handle uptempo-friendly staging, though.
Love Generation's song should be fun. I'm not sure about their live performing skills, but there is more interest in them than your average fairly new girl group might have due to the RedOne connection--they're in with a chance. At the least, I imagine the song will get many iPod plays from me.
I've liked a number of Melody Club songs over the years and, though their latest album had fewer songs I connected with than ever before, I'm going to hope that this new song will be in keeping with the ones I have enjoyed.
I thought Linda Pritchard (and her song) were pretty underrated in 2010 and she's done nothing to dissuade my interest in her yet. A ballad admittedly isn't my first choice for anyone so I might not be able to rouse the excitement I'd like to, but she'll probably sing well and I wouldn't like to see her fall out of competition.
My guess as to my reaction to Lasse Stefanz: it will probably be contingent on their results. I'm not a huge dansband fan but if they pull a middling place, I'll probably like their song in a somewhat removed way; if they go straight to the final, though, I'm pretty likely to angrily think they "stole" some the spot of some act I liked more.
Rock ballads are rarely my thing (I'd rather have a big stadium-shaking crossover rock hit any day), particularly hard rock ballads, and I just don't see Nicke doing the big cheesy MOR power ballad I'd have a better chance of enjoying. Still, he's got good songwriters, so there's a little chance of a surprise.
I heard my first Christmas song of the season on the radio last Saturday. It must officially be that time of year again...which means a new set of popstar Christmas songs. That's good news for Paul of Fizzy Pop and just maybe good news for the rest of us, too, at least when they're as enjoyable as "I Don't Believe In Angels," the new single from Melody Club.
A duet featuring guest vocals from Anna Järvinen, "I Don't Believe In" has an organic band sound to it, but a gentle, strummy one. It's also, surprisingly, sweetly uplifting. I love the combination of Kristofer and Anna's voices together; I hadn't heard Anna's work before, but apparently she was part of the group Granada and has had a solo career for the past few years.
In a similar vein of grown-up Swedish pop is Mathias Holmgren's latest single, "Tänk om jag dör nu inatt," though it's not technically Christmas-themed.
My usual attitude is wishing Mathias, a Fame Factory contestant who spent some time as the lead singer of Barbaods after Magnus Carlsson's departure before also going solo himself, would return to schlager. He began his solo career with Melodifestival entry "Långt bortom tid och rum," pure schlager, and his first solo album, Vägen hem, was very much in that style. After that, though, he moved to a more singer-songwriter sound. "Tänk om jag dör nu inatt" isn't actually too far removed from that style, but it's done really, really well, the sort of song that sweeps you along for its rises and falls. From what I understand of the lyrics, they only further my belief that the right word for "Tänk om jag dör nu inatt" is "lovely," albeit sadly lovely. The title means "What If I Die Tonight," and the song stands as an attempt to apologize and win back a lover after a fight. What makes it even better is that the song is written by Johan Thorsell, Mathias's husband; the song stands on its own, but that extra bit of emotional context makes it even more powerful and poignant.
You can buy Melody Club and Anna Järvinen's single "I Don't Believe In Angels" here (digital) and Mathias Holmgren's single "Tänk om jag dör nu inatt" here (digital). Mathias releases an album of the same title November 18.
Melody Club are #1 Hits From Another Planet favorites, so complete credit and loads of thanks goes to Nick for introducing me to them. They are, like so many brilliant artists, Swedish, but before you turn off, thinking "oh no, not more schlager or disco-y dance-pop," they don't really sound like anyone else out there. Think more like...the best of the '80's, maybe--synth-pop. I've not picked up their third album yet, though from all accounts it's great, and I don't know how it couldn't be, given the quality of their first two albums, Music Machine and Face The Music. They've released a good number of singles since the 2002 release of Music Machine, with songs like "Electric" and "Baby (Stand Up)" garnering a good deal of deserved praise, but for some reason, I've always had a soft spot from one of the non-singles from their debut album.
Stranded Love--maybe not quite as "sophisticated" as some of their other work, but something draws me to it--maybe its exuberance? It's one of those songs that just makes me want to jump up and down in my room, shouting along with the chorus, each time it comes on. Maybe it was just the most instant? It's the preview for this song that convinced me to buy the album, and I'm hoping that might turn out to be true for other people. Smart and stylish but fun, punchy, full of synths, and incredibly catchy, it's also been road-tested and -approved, so even if you don't feel comfortable singing along in front of everyone in the house, you can still sneak in your "shower singing" in the car...could be a little dangerous if you start getting the urge to dance, air guitar, or air drum, though!
To buy Melody Club's first album, Music Machine, go here (physical) or here (digital). It's also available on iTunes in all countries. Their albums are just generally excellent in every way, so I definitely strongly recommend picking them up--as I said, the song I posted today wasn't even a single, and I can't even say that's a crime, because their albums are packed full of potential singles. I'll never understand why they aren't huge everywhere.
Your problems don't exist when music feels like this.
Songs are posted only for promotional purposes (I love them and want others to know about them, too)--if you like them, please "go out and buy the record"! If you are an artist, represent one, or are a songwriter/producer and would like your songs removed, I'll gladly do so (just let me know).
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