#54 Sergey Lazarev, "Flyer (Under Fire)"

In time
I know I'm gonna make you mine

If this song had made it to Eurovision instead of the much inferior "Believe" by Dima Bilan, which beat it out, it would have been at least my fourth favorite song at the contest, and I have a feeling it might have ended up ranked even higher in this countdown, much as I try to focus on nothing other than how much I enjoy a song when making this list. "Flyer (Under Fire)" is Swede-penned, a fact that isn't surprising to learn when you hear the song's up-tempo revvy Euro-pop beat. It would have been so nice to have a male soloist at this year's Eurovision doing something like this, danceable--it feels tailor-made for higher-energy choreography--and really catchy. Still, at least it was further proof of Russian singer Sergey's pop credentials; I will be, as always, very excited to hear what he does next.

(Incidentally, I think there are two versions of this song, a demo and the final version, and they're pretty different; apparently I've spent the year listening to the demo.)

Best you've ever had, it's more than I can take

Run run run over to Fizzy Pop, the latest blog from Paul of The Zapping, to read some exciting Simon Curtis news and a truly fantastic interview with Russian singer Sergey Lazarev.

Baby, you're too good to be true

I've been kind of remiss in talking about some of the Eurovision and national final entries that I--well, not necessarily love, but want to say something about. Here, then, is a quick run down of some of my thoughts.

Russia
Let's start with this: I like Dima Bilan's music. I really do. However, the news we've heard recently out of Team Bilan seems too much like a team that thought they had the national selection sewn up trying to draw attention back to themselves. Sergey Lazarev's participation in the national final means that Dima is no longer one huge name amongst other less popular artists, and suddenly Dima's quest for the title of Russian representative seems a lot less sure...which makes me more than a little skeptical about the news story about Dima losing control of his name that we heard a little while ago (and which now appears to be having no ramifications whatsoever). Team Bilan then followed up that announcement with the news that (with the song they'd originally planned to enter not eligible--apparently it had been released by another artist years earlier) the song they were entering was Timbaland-produced, not an entirely surprising fact given that Dima had released the Timbaland-penned "Number One Fan" as a single earlier on (as well as the fact that as one of Russia's post successful popstars Dima and his management can easily buy a big name writer's song if they want to), but nevertheless a fact that would pretty obviously draw attention and press. Meanwhile, a clip of Sergey rehearsing, complete with a little bit of his song playing in the background, hit the Internet, shortly followed by the whole song. Dima's song was today put up on his website (admittedly in subpar audio quality).

All that background, though, may not be the most important thing--the real question is, which song is better? For me, it's easy: I definitely prefer Sergey's "Flyer (Under Fire)." Dima's song is a ballad with a typical Timbaland-type beat underneath it, a type of song I love when it's done well (Nelly Furtado's "Say It Right," Timbaland and OneRepublic's "Apologize"--though perhaps those aren't entirely accurate comparisons, since there's a little more acoustic guitar work going on here), but this just doesn't seem like a particular outstanding example of that type to me. For Timbaland knockoffs, I still much prefer the Czech Republic entry.

Sergey's entry, on the other hand, I loved from the first listen. Schlagerprick observed a little while back that it looks like we're headed for a Eurorave party at Eurovision, and "Flyer (Under Fire)" would fit right in with that environment; it's very danceable and I guess could be called "Europop." It's a song that sounds very much in the vein of Sergey's past work, though I'd say it's one of the best songs he's ever done. It'll lend itself to some group choreography wonderfully, though I'm not sure if has Eurovision winner written all over it (I'm having trouble explaining why--I think maybe just because it's not really really "big" in some way), but it's a great fun entry that I'd love to see do well on the night. I'm pretty sure it would be one of my favorite entries.

Greece
On the free and legal Eurovision mp3s front: I usually ignore all the mail I get from digital music stores I'm registered with, but amazingly you can get the non-Eurovision version of Kostas Martakis's national final entry"Always And Forever" here; you do have to be signed into their service, though, which means you'll have to register. It's been a while since I did, but there's definitely no monthly fee or anything, and I don't think you have to buy anything to create an account, just give them an e-mail address. Actually, let's just skip all that: if you're interested, here's the non-Eurovision version.

Always And Forever

Anyway, I might as well throw in my two cents on the Kostas song while I'm at it. The non-Eurovision version wasn't what I was expecting from the composer and I didn't really expect it to be something that would stand out at Eurovision, but something told me it could end up a personal national finals favorite with me, and I really think it will. The guitarry version isn't discotastic or schlagerrific or anything, but listening to it in high quality now (you can appreciate the backing vocals properly this way) has really made me realize how much I love it...which is a lot.

Kostas performed a remixed Eurovision version of the song (which, with its revving noises and dance influence, sounds more like I was expecting from Kontopolous) at Greece's national finals and took second (out of three), winning the jury vote but substantially losing the public vote.



Obviously it has no impact on the song's quality, but let's be honest, he looks pretty great here (plus, there's just something about a guy doing some group choreography that always gets me going). Let's talk about that dance break in the middle there, though--what was that? Kostas just stands there? Compare that with what we got at a similar point in, say, Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero"--right where the song should take off to whole new levels it feels like it's just gone all random and has taken a step back.

My music taste is really getting beyond predictable now, isn't it? Does it make it any better if I say No Angels's "Disappear" was my favorite song in Germany? Actually...

Germany

Germany just chose No Angels' "Disappear" to represent them this year and, though I'm skeptical as to how well the song will translate to the Eurovision stage, I adore "Disappear." A gorgeous mid-tempo ballad that's full of sweet production touches, it brings out a reaction in me similar to the one I imagine Girls Aloud's "Call The Shots" was supposed to. I'm so pleased for them, and I really hope I'm proven wrong about how well it ends up coming across at Eurovision.



As a song, I also liked the Cinema Bizarre entry, the electro-rock-pop "Forever Or Never" (it was good enough that I was able to put aside their probable origins and styling), but the lead singer proved last night (not embedded above) that he needs major frontman lessons--all he did was stand there! The fact that their performance managed to seem in any way dynamic is a credit pretty much solely to the camera work, which focused mainly on kind of jolting short shots of the band and close-ups of the singer. The chorus didn't translate well at all to the stage last night either.

Andorra

I love this. Yes, more predictable responses from me, but I think this is great if predictable cheesy catchy uptempo "traditional" Europop.

That's probably more than enough Eurovision writing for now--I'm sure tomorrow I'll be writing about Melodifestivalen, but I'll try to do something non-Eurovision related the day after that. Maybe. Or maybe I'll end up weighing in on a few more entries tomorrow in the lead-up to Melodifestivalen.

#47 Sergey Lazarev, "TV or Radio"

Anything to make it, you wanna be
Not too proud to fake it, such a wannabe

Talk about a bizarre video. Anyway, I initially expected Russian singer Sergey Lazarev's cover of "Shattered Dreams" to end up as my favorite song from his second solo album, TV Show. I liked "TV or Radio," but it felt like it verged on annoying and didn't have enough of a chorus to have much staying value. In the past few months, though, I've found myself addicted to its short horn blurts, electronically-created pop beats (very "pure pop"), and most of all that bridge, which (simple as it is) I love way too much for some reason. I'm not sure why, as this is not a frosty female-vocalled Scandi electro-pop song, but for some reason it makes me think of Annie's "Chewing Gum"--do not go into the song thinking of that, though; I think it's just I imagine the dance routine from the "Chewing Gum" video being performed every time I hear this song.

Find it on: TV Show

And just because it never gets old, "Fake," a ridiculous-in-the-best-possible-hilarious way, completely fantastic single from Sergey's first album, which happens to have one of the campest music videos ever.

I lose my mind in a fantasy

Fact: Sergey Lazarev's "Fake" was one of the best songs of last year. Completely ridiculous in every way, but brilliant. Even if he'd never done anything else I liked (which isn't the case), the former member of Russian duo Smash!! would have had my attention for his second solo album, TV Show. Though there's nothing on the album that I think equals "Fake," it does have its share of good songs--though fans of the original may not like it, I love his cover of "Shattered Dreams" (speaking of which, did I hear once that boy band Ultra covered it? Is that true?). "He Said She Said" is not a cover of the Ashley Tisdale song, but it's good as well, though sometimes I think the chorus lets down the rest of the song a little bit (most of the time not, though), "Girlfriend" (which Ben Adams co-wrote) is good, "TV or Radio" should be annoying but is actually sort of addictively catchy, and the more ballad-like "Everytime" is good as well. I think ultimately my favorite song may end up being the cover of "Shattered Dreams," but since that's been around for a while, here's another great song from the album.

Do Me Right-- shamelessly cheesy pop, a little bit disco-tastic, and propelled largely on strings and a certain repeated electronic beat, this is a great example of the sort of song that you absolutely have to look outside of the U.S. to find being released...sadly. "Do Me Right" is very danceable, very electronic but not electro at all, and, possibly most importantly, catchy. Sergey's singing is high-pitched, but that's a good thing--it fits perfectly with the gloss of the song. Speaking of his voice, one of the other best aspects of the song is the remix-like playing with his voice that is used to create some backing vocals at various points. It wouldn't surprise me at all if people actually from Russia disavowed this song, but I really like it. Don't think--just listen to the song and have fun.

I still don't know any good Internet stores from which to buy Russian music (I'd love recommendations!), so I rely on eBay for my Russian music; you can buy Sergey Lazarev's album TV show from there. It's also available from Amazon's Marketplace.

Next up: maybe a Swedish singer.

Edited in because it never gets old: the video for "Fake."



Despite (because of?) all the water pouring down over scantily clad women, it's sort of like the video equivalent of the cover of Danny's Heart.Beats, no?

I just don't see us tomorrow, babe

Wow! Over the past several months, the condition of my headphones must have been steadily deteriorating, but at a pace that I didn't realize it. Yesterday, though, I switched pairs (from my earbuds to some old school headphones), and wow! I had forgotten how amazing music could sound! Of course, this also had some unforseen side effects. I'm having to go back and reevaluate anything I heard for the first time recently--for example, though I still like that Marcos Hernandez song, it's for entirely separate reasons now--you really can't hear that "build" I was going on about with decent (or maybe just half-decent) headphones. It also had the rather unfortunate side effect of me lying in bed at 2:41 AM, listening to "Lev Livet" and trying not to burst out laughing (I was literally biting my lip and shaking)--it's just that infectiously knock-you-over-the-head happy!

One more side note: Digital Technique, already a must-visit, is even more so now because of the post on Sergey Lazarev, who, along with Vlad Topalov from yesterday, was the other former member of Smash!!. Sergey's going in a slightly more electronic and often more dance-oriented style (even for his ballads) and his song "Fake" is seriously one of the best singles of the year (you will want to laugh and be compelled to dance at the same time--I can't believe how much I like it, and that it's held up so many months on, but it's brilliant).

On with the topic for today: Mihai Trăistariu. Mihai is from Romania and sang one of my favorite songs from last year's Eurovision, "Tornero" (speaking of Eurovision: I can't wait for it! This will be the first time I've really followed it as it's happening). Mihai used to be a member of the group Valahia but has since gone solo. He also has an incredible range (five octaves, including his whistle register, I think). He released an album earlier this year, but has also just come out with a Christmas album. His official website is also rather interesting (lots of noise! light-up swords?), though it seems to be behind the times. The non-holiday album disappointed me a little bit, as I was hoping for a bunch of danceable songs, and it's sadly rather short of those, and there are no stormers on par with "Tornero."

Tornero--I'm posting the Eurovision version instead of the album version because I prefer the former by a long shot--there are a lot more background electronic effects going on in the album version, but I think they actually detract from the power, fun, and catchiness of the Eurovision edit, and there was some strange changing of the lyrics and rearranging of the parts of the song. Uptempo and really, really catchy, "Tornero" also boasts a killer moment two-thirds in that you'll probably be mimicking for the rest of the day (the closest I can come to explaining it in written words would be something like "I didn't know-oh-oh-oh-oh-OHHHH...TORRR-NERR-OOO!," but trust me, that doesn't even come close). Despite the title, probably most of the song is in English--it's only the chorus where Mihai switches over to Italian.

Everybody Loves Tomorrow Day--a bit similar to "Tornero" in that it's danceable (mainly in the chorus), but this isn't quite as anthemic. Despite its somewhat awkward title, it's got a decent, a bit trance-influenced chorus that means you probably won't be thinking about the grammar for too long (well, maybe you will, but it sort of feels like it makes sense when he's singing it...maybe). The echoey electronic voice is a nice touch.

Crazy Dance--still of the electronic-ish dance variety, but slightly less laid-back than "Everybody Loves Tomorrow Day." The chorus somehow manages to be awkward but catchy at the same time.

Dimmi si o no--both copies of this song I've heard have that talking at the beginning; I'm not sure if all of them do, but it'd be sort of funny if they all preemptively talked about Mihai Träistariu being back with a "brand new hit." I know they all have that telephone conversation in the beginning, though, because Mihai even uses it when he performs live. Out of these last three songs, this is probably the closest in style to "Tornero," though it still can't rival it. Except for the opening, though, it's not in English Except the verses clearly are in English--I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that. This one also has more of Mihai showing off his voice--can that really be him singing at 2:41?! I guess that's what they must mean by "whistle register"...

To buy Mihai Träistariu's album Tornero (in some places, Mihai just used his first name), go here (physical).

Rumor has it that McFly may try to break the U.S. again. I am all for this--honestly, they should be massive here. I'm convinced that if they could've had a spot on the AMAs or something they would have become the next big thing here, and even without that, they should still be huge. However..."Star Girl"? Are you serious, boys?! It's a decent song, but it's so far from their best work that I honestly have no idea what they're thinking. Give us "Sorry's Not Good Enough," give us "Friday Night," give us "We Are The Young," (I'd say "Transylvania, but I don't think that'd be the thing to break with here), but "Star Girl"?!?! Do you not want to be successful here? I'm beginning to think you don't, because you're doing exactly all the wrong things.
(United States, if McFly take off here, I will...I will...well, I don't know what exactly I'd do, but I would be so incredibly thrilled that I can't even explain!)

Next up: maybe an American singer.

Begging me to stay doesn't help it anyway

Vlad Topalov was one-half of popular Russian duo Smash!!; the other half was Sergey Lazarev, who I've featured here a couple of times before. Let me preface all this by saying that I don't know any Russian, so my sources for this information are fairly limited and could be unreliable--feel free to correct me on any of it! After Sergey left Smash!!, Vlad released one more album by himself still using the Smash!! name before releasing a solo album under his own name. The album, Lonely Star (all right, technically, I think it's title is Одинокая звезда, or Odinokaya Zvezda, but I'm going to refer to it as Lonely Star for simplicity's sake), is, unlike Sergey's, mainly in Russian. Though Lonely Star lacks a really stand-out, excellent track like Sergey's "Fake," I think it might be the better album overall, though it still seems to be missing something; often, the backing track is let down by a not-quite-interesting enough part for Vlad (for example, the strings in "Can't Take It" are nice--I was tempted to post it just because of how promising the first ten seconds are--but there's just nothing special about the sung part). Vlad has also been linked to one of the t.a.T.u. girls in the past.

Kinda Crazy--this song isn't really typical of the rest of the album at all, which tends to be more on the mid-tempo, pretty side. "Kinda Crazy" opts for a little more of an agressive attitude and, especially in the chorus, is a little rockier (or at least trying to be rocky). Besides the guitars in the chorus that seem to have been tossed in at the last minute, though, it's got some interesting orchestration and even gets a bit atmospheric in the middle 8. It's a typical "girl, I love you but I just can't take this anymore" song.

No More I'm Sorry--doesn't this song start out with potential? It's got quite the interesting, fun little beginning, and really, with that catchy little phrase repeating and then the entrance of the strings used in the song, I guess I'm willing to forgive it the lack of a really killer hook in the vocal part (and it is pretty cute as is; it just feels like it could be so much better). "No More I'm Sorry" is surprisingly sweet-sounding for a song all about breaking up with a girl.

Поднимусь высоко--maybe I just like Vlad's songs for the string parts in them. This is another case of some interesting ideas, but not enough of them. The title translates to something like "I Shall Rise Highly," and I suppose it does have a bit of a rising feel to it, especially with those strings (I know I'm mentioning them all the time, but they're far and away the best part of these songs--even though they wouldn't stand up without the vocals--and I really like that he uses them).

As for buying Vlad Topalov's album Lonely Star, I don't know my way around any Russian music stores, so the best I can recommend is that you check eBay, and point you in the direction of his official site.

Next up: I just found out a really surprising fact about a song I posted earlier, so I might write about that.

It's quarter to four, we're hanging out at the pizza place

I did intend to post about Gregory Lemarchal today, but events in the world of pop interfered; I'll probably get to him at some point (maybe tomorrow or maybe if I ever do a Fame Academy special), but for now, a conglomeration of random happenings:

Thanks to the incredibly in the know Split Chick, I now know that McFly's new logo has been revealed. This is it. You can see the less than enthusiastic reactions over at the Popjustice boards or mixed reactions at the official McFly boards. I have to admit my first reaction is not hugely positive, but perhaps it will work once we see the album cover? In fairness, I don't think I've ever given any thought to a band's logo before (although I did make sure to buy the Room On The Third Floor album with yellow text, not red), so I probably wouldn't have even thought about it if McFly hadn't announced that they were going to be revealing their new logo soon. It does sort of look wavy, which I guess might fit with the non-metaphorical meaning of their album title (unless they've changed the title, since HMV now lists it as "TBC"). I'm sort of more intrigued by the picture below the logo than anything, actually...

Here's one of my favorite non-singles from McFly's first album, "Surfer Babe"--it's light and frivolous but also bouncy and happy. Though I can't really picture it getting airplay in California, it totally sounds like what I'd like to imagine all of California is like.

The video for Sergey Lazarev's "Fake" is on YouTube. It is, quite appropriately, cheap, over-the-top, mildly exploitative, and features rain for no apparent reason; it goes without saying, then, that it is trashily enjoyable. If that isn't enough Sergey for you, you can also view the different video made to accompany a remix. I think both the remix video (featuring trippy lights and lots of standing in front of circles) and the remix itself (it's lost some of its crunch electro-ness) aren't as good as the originals, but here's the remix anyhow--it and the video are more retro-sounding.

Fake (Video Remix)

(Actually, on second thought, the remix video might be even more trashily enjoyable than the original--it's sort of '60's/'70's; I still prefer the original song, though.)

On a completely different note, Josh Groban has a new single, "You Are Loved (Don't Give Up)," coming out, with an album to follow, according to unofficial sources, on November 7. You can listen to "You Are Loved" here (though you might want to open that link in a new window, since it takes you directly to the small audio player). Yes, I do listen to some of his music and, though I've never made it all the way through one of his albums at once, some of it is quite good. I won't try to justify it here--that would probably take up a whole post--but the exciting news is this: it's less classical than his earlier work. It definitely has classical influences, but it's more along the lines of a pop power ballad than anything else. Now, while "pop power ballad" isn't usually an exciting thing (and to be honest, I prefer some of his more classical ballads to this new single), this new somewhat-more-pop direction means there is a chance, a slight chance, an incredibly incredibly tiny chance but still a chance nonetheless--a chance that there might be an uptempo pop song on the new album! How exciting would that be? I'm thinking maybe something like Anthony Callea's "Into Your Heart," where you have a dancey background that makes up for not-really-very-fast vocals. Even a song like Anthony's/Ola's "Rain" could work well for him. I know the probability of this is practically infinitesimally small, but I can hope, can't I? Of course, even if he does do a faster song, there's no guarantee it would even be good...

To buy McFly's first album Room On The Third Floor (and you really should--it's great!), go here (physical) or here (digital); I still have no idea how to buy Sergey Lazarev's album, Don't Be Fake, short of eBay.

Next up: possibly Gregory Lemarchal, but I'm not totally psyched about that idea right now--maybe something more fun...

(That McFly logo is starting to grow on me, I think, which I didn't expect to happen, but in the right context, I could see it working. I'd buy the CD even if it looked like that picture up above, though.)

mcfly sergey lazarev josh groban

Ain't no need to audition

Credit for introducing me to the focus of today's post goes to Russkipop, which featured him back in March. Sergey Lazarev (on the right) was one-half, along with Vlad Topalov, of Russian duo Smash!! (I don't know that much about Smash!!'s history, but I like to imagine that some Russian music producer decided it was a shame Wham! wasn't around anymore, found two attractive guys, chose an onomatopoeic word reflecting collisions, upped the ante by adding two exclamation marks instead of one, and released them upon the world). After a couple of years of success, Smash!! split up and Sergey and Vlad decided to pursue solo careers. Sergey was first out of the gate with his album, as Vlad chose to release one more album under the name "Smash!!" before recording under his own name.

Fake--when I first listened to this song, I liked it, but I didn't think it would have any staying power. Surprisingly, months later, I am still listening to it. Yes, the lyrics are somewhat ludicrous (and there aren't even that many of them), but when has that ever hindered a good pop song? Good electro backing, catchy chorus--even the half-spoken, half-sung parts are catchy. According to his official site, "Fake"--the fourth single from his album Don't Be Fake--has been released to UK clubs. Crazy as it sounds (I still can't believe I'm writing this), I really recommend this song; it's just...fun, for lack of a better word.

In other news, two new songs by these two young men have been revealed. I'd still have to give "The Rejection" and "Give Me Danger" the edge in my favorites of theirs contest, but they are good. I don't want to refer to them by name (I'm hoping that anyone who finds out about them because they read this blog is likely to buy them once they are legally released, as opposed to finding them here because of googling and not buying them once they're available, even though they'll probably be everywhere quite soon--given that this is an mp3 blog, I don't know what makes this different than any other post, but whatever), but they are here and here (links removed since I just found out the EP is available to buy from iTunes today; since it's newly released, I don't want to post download links for it); for more details, go to Arjan Writes (see the blogroll on the right).

I would give you a site for buying Sergey Lazarev's first album, Don't Be Fake, but I don't know any sites that sell it and I don't know much about Russian music stores, so the best I can do is recommend eBay; to buy the first EP by the latter group (which doesn't have the songs featured today), go here (digital; only valid for US residents) or to iTunes.

Next up: Matt Willis releases "Hey Kid" tomorrow, so I might write a bit about him, or post about Vlad or Smash!! (and I'll try to use fewer parantheses).

sergey lazarev