I can't believe it's only Monday, the worst day of the week

One of two likely Xenomania products from a leak of tracks recorded for British X Factor winner Shayne Ward's upcoming third album, "Knocked Down" is one of those songs that makes everything seem to move in slow motion--slower than the beat would make you think, though the gentleness of the instrumental makes the pace seem less than it is. Musically, it's a bit like a more subdued "I Wish" by Mini Viva.

Knocked Down by poppostergirl

The lyrics in the middle of the song at first seem to go a little off course--"Come on, take off something/Girl, don't be shy" is more direct and less kitchen-sink a come-on than Miranda Cooper usually uses--but there's reason to forgive that when, right when you think the song has established the track it will be treading, Xenomania manage to pull off one of their trademark surprises. It's not a section that sounds like it's torn out of a whole different song (a la "Biology") or the last minute reveal of the chorus that's been held off the entire song (a la "It's Magic")--in fact, it's a line we've heard several times throughout the song up to this point. Somehow, though, just as the song is fading out, Xenomania manage to make it pop out at you:

"Because you fit under my arm just right"

I'm sure dozens of songwriters have used a similar phrase before, but what matters is that right there, in that moment, as the song slips away and the keyboards gently swoon and dance their way into silence, it catches you and feels like a moving, authentic expression of something you'd have trouble articulating so succinctly.

What that little fragment captures is also the feel of the whole song, even if it's not necessarily the story the lyrics tell: having a dreamy, loved-up feeling sneak up on you from nowhere. You're not feeling particularly sentimental--caught up in the chase and lusty, if anything--and then there it is: the idea that that little physical indicator, the way your arm fits around someone or vice-versa, might be an indicator of a connection that is, suprisingly, more than just physical. And as you drift off to sleep, mind too fuzzy to really think deeply about any of this, it dawns on you, You know, maybe that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world...

There's nowhere yet to buy "Knocked Down," but you can buy Shayne Ward's most recent album, Breathless, here (physical) or here (digital).

Turn and walk away tonight

Songwriter update (because yes, I am a total songwriter nerd-in-training):

Jessie J (pictured), the British singer that Worrapolava has championed, was signed a few months ago. That's not news. What is news is that she's had Dr. Luke and Claude Kelly (working together, Kelly Clarkson's "My Life Would Suck Without You," Britney's "Circus") writing for her.

Claude Kelly (in addition to the songs mentioned above, Leona Lewis's "Forgive Me," Lemar's "If She Knew," Linda Teodosiu's "Love Sux") has also been working with Jordin Sparks, who, in addition to working with Lucas Secon (the Pussycat Dolls' "Hush Hush," Sarah Connor's "Under My Skin," Martin's "Show The World") on that song I posted about earlier this year, has apparently gotten at least one song from Ryan Tedder (Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love," Timbaland feat. OneRepublic's "Apologize") too: Popjustice revealed last week that the lead single for her second album is a Tedder-penned song called "Battlefied." Check out PJ's post for details.

Moving back to Claude Kelly for a moment, as I mentioned earlier, he's also done several songs with the Backstreet Boys recently. A video of him talking about them was posted, but it's since been set to private. In it, though, he mentions "Bye Bye Love" (an up-tempo club-friendly song which features the line "I think I want to stay single, so bye bye love," as revealed earlier), "Don't Try This At Home" (which they sang a cappella at a sound check; it's a "heartbreak record"), and "What I Know Now" (he calls it a "pop urban hybrid;" listen to a non-BSB featuring demo here). He's also working with Wynter Gordon and, somewhat surprisingly, American Idol's Jason Castro.

Ryan Laubscher, the main man behind Alex Roots, has clips of demos for several artists on his official site (click on "Music"). The most noteworthy ones in terms of artist names that I hadn't previously heard elsewhere are Amy Pearson's "Contagious," the title track from her second album (it's more upbeat and electro/dance than I was expecting); Tina Barrett's (formerly of S Club 7) "I'll Be Your Woman;" Alex Roots's "Prisoner" (which sounds like it could potentially be epic in its final form), and Christophe Willem's "Si je tombais" (there's a Pixie song, too, but the full version of that has been on his MySpace, and I think it might just be a demo available for purchase).

Fred Ball of Pleasure (see: his work with Bertine Zetlitz, his producer project Pleasure's "Out Of Love") has done "forthcoming" work with Sophie Ellis-Bextor (that he'd co-written a song with Ina Wroldsen, lately of work with the Saturdays, called "Synchronized" was already known, so this could be referring just to that or to more), Little Boots (not sure whether it's songs we've already heard or not), and Paloma Faith (whose name is popping up all over the place).

Speaking of Ina Wroldsen (as mentioned above, she was the glue that held the Saturdays together in terms of songwriting), I only just found out that she co-wrote the song Lucas Secon (who also co-wrote it) has had listed as Pixie Lott's second single for ages, before we even found out what the first single was, "Gravity." Her recent work also includes a song for Lindsay Lohan called "Stuck" (though given the limbo that project's in, I wouldn't hold your breath to hear it), songs for Leona Lewis called "Thank You Thank You" and "Your Heart," a song for Kat De Luna called "Break Me," and a song for Hayden Panettiere called "Top Up."

Xenomania (Girls Aloud) are keeping busy, with news coming out over the past month that they'll be working with Leona Lewis, and Shayne Ward, both of whom are British X Factor winners.

The most recent X Factor winner, Alexandra Burke (pictured), appears to be working with some big names for her debut album: RedOne (Darin's "Step Up," Lady GaGa's "Just Dance") Stargate (Beyoncé's "Irreplaceable," Rihanna's "Don't Stop The Music"), Brian Kennedy (Rihanna's "Disturbia," Chris Brown's "Forever") Timbaland (Nelly Furtado's "Maneater," Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack;" possibly just met, but maybe worked with), the Freemasons (remixes of Beyoncé songs, Kylie Minogue's "The One"), Claude Kelly, Savan Kotecha (Britney Spears's "If U Seek Amy," Shayne Ward's "No U Hang Up"), Soulshock & Karlin (Alesha Dixon's "Breath Slow"), and probably some people I've left out. In other words: big budget, brand name songwriters--taking Alexandra to major international success is obviously what her management is aiming for.

Do you remember the brilliant Dolly Rockers' song "How Did I End Up With You?" I posted a week ago? Popjustice wrote about it shortly after (and posted a clip of the studio version) and revealed (well, clued me in) that the songwriter behind it and the majority of the project is Ray Hedges.

On the subject of girl bands promoted on PopJustice, Girls Can't Catch's debut single "Keep Your Head Up" is written and produced by Chris Braide (the Saturdays' "Chasing Lights," D-Side's "Invisible"). The live version has shown the song so have a lot of potential, but the clips of the studio version we've heard so far are lacking punch; they sound like demos. Hopefully there's still time to improve the production on them.

I'm sure I forgot something I meant to mention, but that'll do for now.

Remember those photographs we took on that boat in Spain?

Stolen straight from the Popjustice forums, which in turn took it from his official site:

It's been ages since we heard news from Shayne Ward, but, as if I wasn't excited enough already for his third album, he's just revealed he's been recording with Quiz & LaRossi and Xenomania.

Amazing news. Add that to the fact he was working with Taio Cruz (I'm imagining him doing something like Avenue's original version of the Taio-penned "Set Your Body Free" or Taio's "Come On Girl") and it seems like he's headed in the right direction for his new album. While on paper I should have loved his last album--and in reality it was good, certainly better than the reputation it has--it didn't quite stick the way I wanted it to (though "No U Hang Up" took the title of my second favorite single of 2007 in my countdown). I'm not entirely sure why; maybe I felt like it was missing any bite or edge, though by "edge" I don't actually mean edgy, boundaries-pushing sounds necessarily but rather more music with a bit of a hard edge to it. I loved "No U Hang Up" and "Damaged," though, and both of those had a super-polished, cuddly, rounded-edges sound that apparently didn't bother me, so I'm not entirely positive that that's the right explanation.

Anyway, based on the collaborators for this new album (which also include Future Cut, the Underdogs, and Karen Poole), it's looking like if that was indeed what I felt the album was missing, that could be remedied here. I'm equally excited about Quiz & LaRossi, who've been on a roll recently, and Xenomania, who, short of the Pet Shop Boys, we haven't really heard work with male acts for quite some time. I still think Shayne has (here comes this phrase again) real popstar potential, so I hope he's taken in the right directions this time.

(This feels like a good time to revisit that album and see if I love it any more after some time has passed.)

Remember those photographs we took on that boat in Spain?

What is Shayne Ward doing these days?


Working on songs for his new album. So far, he's already worked with Taio Cruz (with whom he wrote a song he calls "a BIG TUNE;" Simon Cowell apparently recruited Taio to work with both Shayne and Leona, and Taio, who says they've done four songs together, says that "It's just a cooler sound for him, in the way that Justin Timberlake broke out of that typical pop and moved it forward to a cooler element"), Future Cut (Darren Lewis and Tunde Babalola, who did Lily Allen's "Smile"), Karen Poole (he says the song he wrote with her is "beautiful"), and the Underdogs (who did Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown's "No Air"). For his work with the Underdogs, he was actually in Los Angeles for some weeks and worked with some other writers as well.

While we wait for that new album, he's going to perform in Asia for a while. Come back to the U.S., Shayne! Oh, wait--he just might be, at some point. Taken from his forum:

Q: What are your plans for the future?

A: I just want to focus on getting the songs right. I’ve got some really big ones for the next album and I’m really excited. I’m looking forward to doing America properly as well.

(Picture credit to Ultimate Shayne Ward.)

#2 Shayne Ward, "No U Hang Up"

A lot of girls are sexy
But you know how to use it
You can keep me
Up on the phone all night
We say let's hang up on three
But we don’t ever do it
Ain't it crazy
How after all this time
We got that you hang
No, you hang up kinda love

From the moment I first heard (via YouTube) a live performance of this song, I was completely sold. Shayne Ward and I have had somewhat of an up-and-down relationship throughout the year, though.

• I was super excited for his lead single.
• At first listen, "If That's OK With You" was kind of a letdown--I'd expected a big club banger type of song.
• However, I pretty quickly found myself liking it and fighting the urge to defend it against all the people criticizing it.
• I eventually sort of stopped playing it, though, though the Moto Blanco remix did give it some life.
• I LOVED LOVED LOVED "No U Hang Up" from first listen, even in shady YouTube live performance quality and then radio rip quality--that's never changed.
• I liked "Breathless" at first...
• ...but soon found myself not thinking very much of it at all.
  
• I thought the album was a disappointment at first--it felt throwaway to me, just kind of chintzy, with almost nothing compelling me to listen to it.
• Via Paul's recommendation, I gave it another try and completely changed my opinion on it--a bunch of really solid pop songs.
• However, as time passed, I really didn't listen to it that much--surely that's not a good sign? Every time I did, I thought it was good, there wasn't anything bad (well, "Breathless" still isn't great, but it's not an awful song either), and I wondered why I didn't listen to it more often, but then I would promptly not listen to it again for ages. I had kind of a similar relationship with Jesse McCartney's last album, which I eventually totally came around to in about a year and a half. I'm pretty positive that at some point I'll really give the album a fair shake and I'll adore it, but until then, at least I've got "Damaged."

Anyway, "No U Hang Up" is a slickly produced smoochy kind of mid-tempo pop song with a groove that's pretty irresistible, a lovely little harp-like keyboard (I'm guessing) bit that you can hear at the end, little fluttery effects scattered throughout the song, and lyrics that could be too ridiculous or meet-cute-type sickly sweet for some people, but I adore them, kind of in a find-them-hilarious way, but that doesn't mean I'm not constantly fighting the urge to quote them. I love it. And that's enough.

Find it on: Breathless

Tell me how I'm supposed to breath with no air, can't live can't breath with no air

News break!

New music videos that really aren't worth embedding because they're not must-sees but may interest you if you like the song: Shayne Ward's video for "Breathless," probably notable mainly for the lovely shades of blue in it and for the fact that Shayne, despite wearing a suit for the "main" part of the video, finds another way to take his shirt off, and Maroon 5's video for "Won't Go Home Without You," notable mainly for making me wish they hadn't sold the chorus to "Nothing Lasts Forever" to Kanye West for that one song and could release that instead. Or "Not Falling Apart." If they wanted a ballad.

Another song from the upcoming Jordin Sparks album is out and about now, albeit with verbal tags and an annoying computer noise on it that I'm guessing aren't on the real version. It's called "No Air" and features Chris Brown. It actually feels like it's floating up among the clouds--I can't really describe it in words (though "refreshing" would probably be a good one), but it's definitely less...generic-sounding than "Tattoo" was. Radio friendly? Not sure, and I'm not sure that radio quality would capture this song's essence--it really needs that crisp clean sound. I've not made up my mind on it yet, but I could very well end up thinking it's great. If it didn't have those annoying tags, maybe even post-worthy, but at any rate, it's got me at least thinking about buying her album when it comes out November 20. (I'm sure YouTube has it, but if you're interested, you should definitely hear it in better quality than it'll be at on YouTube.)

Given that Robyn's now made reference to a video for it, it seems "Be Mine!" is the next single (though that's sort of what everyone already thought). Fantastic song--hope it does well.

Da Buzz's greatest hits album is out now. It features two new songs (excluding the already released singles "Take All My Love" and "Baby Listen To Me"). "Take A Chance," which might or might not be their new single (I'm not sure), is good, and you can make up your mind about the other new song by visiting You Don't Know Pop.

I still can't believe that you're mine

Woo! Finally, Shayne Ward's new single has hit the Internet! Plus, apparently there's a dance remix of it out there!

Oh, who am I kidding. Of course this is going to be today's song--it's new Shayne stuff; how could it not be? This album has to be one of my most anticipated of the year.

This song is only going to be posted for something like a day, though (and I'm not mentioning its name here). Once it's taken down, you can still listen to it here.

[song]--anyone who was bothered by the lyrics of this album's lead singles isn't going to feel any better about this song ("if we had babies they would have your eyes/I would fall deeper watching you give life"). And, to be honest, given my attitude towards (prejudice against, to be less euphemistic) ballads and given Shayne's last album, if this had been the lead single, the first indication we got of his new material, I probably would have thrown a fit. Given that he's made it sound like there's only one ballad on the album, though (this being it), I was able to go into it with a far more open mind--which is a good thing, because, despite that slightly kicky drumbeat (slower than you get in, say, a Ne-Yo song), this is much more of a true ballad than "No Promises." It's got all the production values of "No U Hang Up," which I love--there's a certain cleanliness to it, but with enough little elements (that drum machine, strings, processing, electronic touches) that it doesn't feel lifeless; the production alone would win me over. Musically, the chorus is super-sweet and lovely--very swoony--and the middle 8 is quite pretty as well. Will this be knocking Backstreet's "I Want It That Way" away off its perch anytime soon? Probably not*, but it is a very good ballad (albeit the sort that I already see some people brushing off).

I don't know of anywhere where you can preorder this single yet, but you can preorder the album, due out November 26, here (physical).

Next up: maybe the song I was going to post today...which, come to think of it, means it'll be posted on a more appropriate day.

*I reserve the right to change my opinion on this.

Ain't it crazy how after all this time...

File this post, like the one on Ola's "S.O.S", in the "horribly out of date but I didn't want to post it at the time because everyone else was (though I did write about it a lot) and then the single was coming out and I didn't want to hurt it in any way (even though that's silly because it's not as if my blog would do much, and especially not when the song's already all over the Internet), but I still really want to write about it because it's one of my favorite songs of the year" category. I'm truly convinced that Shayne Ward's "If That's OK With You"/"No U Hang Up" double A side single was one of the year's best releases. He's also sort of my ideal popstar, or at least doing a type of music I love and am so relieved to have someone doing. The X Factor winner's upcoming second album, entitled Breathless, is due out November 26, with second single "Breathless" (a ballad which you can listen to a high quality clip of here; thanks to PubliSpain for the heads-up) coming out earlier in November, and I can't wait to get a copy of it. Shayne's style is very pure pop, I'd say, and luckily this second album is reported to have far fewer ballads than his first one (though his cover of "No Promises" from that album is fantastic and one of my favorite songs of 2006; "Next To Me" is also very good as well). I just hope he can keep selling as well as this latest single has--as of last week, it was still at #4, which really surprises but pleases me.

No U Hang Up--I know I've written a lot about this song before, but I have to feature it again--it really is one of my favorite songs of the year. The lyrics are still dorky but adorably so (much like this photo), and the song is so cute, so smooth, so catchy--I've lost track of the number of times I've had "we got that 'you hang up' 'no you hang' kinda love" stuck in my head, but I don't mind at all. It's got great production as well--all those little background sound effects very much help make the song. Not cool in any way, shape, or form, but a fantastic pop song nonetheless.

To preorder Shayne Ward's second album Breathless, go here (physical). Speaking of the album, Amazon and other sites have the following picture with the album, though I'm not sure whether it's the official cover or not.


It's a cropped version of a promo photo we've seen before.

Next up: maybe a German group.

We never had a chance to begin

I got pretty sidetracked when writing about Norwegian singer Maria Arredondo's new single the other day--I hardly spent any time writing about the song itself. Consider this post an attempt to remedy that as well as share the best quality version of the song I've got so far--still not normal quality, but listenable. It is a radio rip, though, so the ending is clipped. As for Maria herself, she's released two pop albums (one in 2003 and one in 2004, both selling platinum) and one holiday album so far. Her voice does have that certain sweetness you'll find in some other female Norwegian singers' voices, but not quite to the same extent, and there's maybe a hint of the potential for her to sing country as well.

Brief and Beautiful--that slight sweetness suits this song really well--it's a great combination of voice and melody (and the songwriters' work really has to be recognized--the melody sounds like a big hit). Great match of melody and lyrics (or at least lyrical sentiment) as well--the bittersweet lyrics about a short-lived relationship (I love the line "like every good thing, it's not yours to keep") and achingly sweet melody (those quick rises and falls in the chorus's vocal melody might as well be the quick rise and fall of the relationship). In short, fantastic beautiful song matched with a singer who brings out its best elements

Since this is a new single, it'll only be posted for a little bit.

I'm not sure of anywhere where you can buy Maria Arredondo's new single "Brief And Beautiful" unless you have access to the Norwegian iTunes store, but you can buy her earlier albums here (physical). They're also listed on Amazon.

Edit: this probably doesn't deserve its own post, but Shayne Ward's video for "No U Hang Up" has debuted over here (you'll have to scroll down a bit, but you'll see a video player). Be warned that it involved black and white, water, and a general lack of clothes.

Next up: a Swedish or American group.

Just an excuse to lay in bed all day

So it's official: I love "No, U Hang Up," which, along with "If That's OK With You," is making up the double A side that is Shayne Ward's latest single (the release of which sadly has been pushed back to September 24).

It's exactly the sort of song loads of people will be calling "naff" but that I adore. The lyrics are adorably dorky (I can't help thinking of that episode of Friends where Ross is on the phone with whoever he's dating and the time and neither of them will hang up, so Rachel grabs the phone out of his hands and hangs up for him), it's catchy, and it brings a smile, almost and often a laugh, to my face every time I hear it and I can't help singing along.

I'm not sure that it's the greatest choice for the UK singles chart or radio, but I'm just happy this sort of music is being made, that we have a popstar who's such a perfect vehicle for these songs.

And though it will be hated by many, "We got that 'you hang up' 'no you hang up' kinda love" is still probably my favorite line of the year (though Enrique Iglesias's "Do you know what it feels like loving someone that's in a rush to throw you away" and maybe the following line in "Do You Know (The Ping Pong Song)" are providing some close competition). Of course, this is coming from the girl whose favorite lyrics of 2006 were

I don't want no Angelina, no Britney or Christina
'Cause all I want is you la la
I won't be no Casanova with Anna Kournikova
'Cause all I want is you la la

...so take that for what it's worth.

We got that "you hang up," "no you hang up" kinda love

Some mini-news flashes:

Blake Lewis is, according to Chris Richardson, "doing his [Blake's] ’80s pop" for his upcoming album (Chris has apparently done some writing with him). Sounds potentially promising--the '80's pop-inspired part, I mean.

Swedish singer Peter Jöback has a new single out called "Stockholm i natt." I've known about it for a few days, but I think, given that it's a ballad in Swedish, it just doesn't quite connect with me, or maybe it'll take some time to grow (Sonja Aldén's Melodifestivalen entry had to). However, for my money, if you want a song with "i natt" in the title, you're better off with Niclas Wahlgren's "I Natt (Part Two)." Yes, it is more older person/MOR sounding, but I really like it. More upbeat than "Stockholm i natt," too.

Month old news at this point, but Danish singer Natasja sadly passed away in a car accident in Jamaica. I've never been too fond of her music--it's dancehall sort of stuff--but she was very close friends with Karen Mukupa (they were in a duo together in the '90's), whose work I do enjoy and have featured before. Mukupa was in the car with her, but is, as far as I know, fine. My condolences go out to Natasja's family and friends.

Shayne Ward mania is taking me over. I love "If That's OK With You" and, in search of any of his new material (because, let's face it, you can only listen to "No Promises" and "Next To Me" so many times; his debut album didn't exactly give you countless listening options), I've been listening to a live performance of another of his new songs "You Hang Up."



It sounds different than I would have expected given the Digital Spy review of the album sampler (it's surely the mentioned "track 4"), but I really like it. And I love that quoted lyric--I could walk around "singing" it all day. And speaking of Shayne, go read the hilarious banterview about him over at Chart Rigger.

There's something 'bout you that makes me want to step up

Though I feel like I've been commenting on it all over the Internet, I don't think I've actually mentioned Shayne Ward's upcoming new album here on this blog. I think Shayne has the potential to be a fantastic popstar (by which I mainly mean do fantastic music). Given the buzz leading up to it, I was expecting the lead single for his new album to be some danceable pop-club style track, maybe something like Darin's "Step Up," so I was really surprised when I first heard it--"If That's OK With You" is reggae-pop-lite, but, after not being so sure about it at first (I had really high hopes), I've come to really enjoy it...it's great! Plus, it looks like we'll still get that club-style song; an early review of some of the album tracks mentions what must be the song everyone thought would be the lead single, "You Make Me Wish," and it sounds very promising--it's described as an "electro-R&B club banger....Over marching band drum rolls and propulsive synth washes, Shayne coos 'you make me wish I didn’t have a girlfriend.'" Fingers crossed it's not a let down.

Anyway, with the video for "If That's OK With You" having just debuted, now's a good a time as any to take a listen to the song. It comes out August 19, with the album expected in October.



I know it's not what he's actually saying, but I always hear "I'm gonna wanna hold you in my arms, make you cry."