For old times' sake

Am I the only one who, every time she hears the beat of the new All-American rejects song, "Gives You Hell," keeps thinking "oh, they've sample Busted's 'Year 3000'!" I mean, I don't really think they have, but that beat is kind of similar to a part of that song. It's kind of an odd song from them, at least as a lead single--that strong guitar part we're used to from them doesn't come in until more than a minute into the song, when we get to the chorus for the first time, and even then, it isn't that guitar-y. I really don't know what to make of it--is it good? Kitschy and disappointing? Different and good? Less different than I think it is? Is the technique that it uses for the last 50 seconds, that whole-crowd-chanting-the-lyrics technique, something that makes the song more powerful, or a desperate attempt to give the song some sort of impact? Should the whole thing have been more musically fleshed-out, or would there then have been nothing special about it? I have no idea. I could be raving about in a week or barely ever listening to it again. "Dirty Little Secret" was just such a perfect adrenaline rush of a song--one of the best of the century so far for me, for sure--that I can't help feeling unenthused about this song so far. It could just be a matter of having to get used to something different than what you were expecting, and the "oooOOOO"s are definitely a good thing.

Dutch Idols winner Nikki's new single (and her first real post-winner's single single), "Bring Me Down" (listen on a MySpace-equivalent), on the other hand, doesn't have any sort of odd quarter-novelty value thing about it; it's fairly straightforward pop-rock. Guitars aren't in short supply here, though they're not overbearing either. Then again, so far I've been raising a similar question about it to one of the ones "Give Me Hell" caused: should it have been more musically fleshed-out? I like the chorus, but it kind of feels like whoever wrote it thought "oh, this might be good" and, instead of polishing it and expanding it, just left it as that basic initial idea. I like "Bring Me Down," though (and I expect it could grow on me), and I'd be posting it instead of the AAR song if I had it, but, as far as I know, it's only for sale on Dutch iTunes so far.

The new All-American Rejects album, When The World Comes Down, doesn't come out until November 18 (tentatively), but you will eventually be able to pre-order it from Amazon (it's not yet listed).

Don't tell anyone or you'll be just another regret

Fact: the very first concert I ever went to was by the All-American Rejects. I didn't really have any idea who they were at the time, but I enjoyed it and my curiosity was piqued afterwards (though I think my main impression leaving it was "wow, Tyson Ritter is ridiculously skinny"). "Dirty Little Secret," the lead single for their second album, was released in 2005 and seemingly took forever to get popular; I didn't really mind, though, because the long drawn out process of picking up radio and video play provided lots of opportunities for me to annoy people by saying "ooo, I love this song!" and turning up the volume literally every time it came on. What can I say? It's rare that I song I love takes off in the U.S., so I had to take advantage of the opportunity while I had it.

Dirty Little Secret--yes, this is a guitarry song. Unlike many of their other singles (which I like as well, let me say), though, I think it has a strong pop core. The guitars here are focused instead of just creating this fuzzy background of noise (something which a lot of bands do that I can't stand); that's almost always a must in terms of winning me over. There's no time for messing about with rambling guitar solos or just playing for the sake of noise--everything here is sharp, crisp, completely in the service of hooking you in. Everything from those opening strikes of the guitar to that verse crescendoing into the catchy chorus to how the guitars drop out and become more sparse and staccato-like going into the following verse to the whole middle 8/middle section (strong, moving into a half-shout, quick guitar break, quiet repeat of the chorus and then explosion into that great chorus again--love it all; I think this whole middle section may be my favorite part) is designed to draw you in, and it does. Upbeat, too, just the way I like it. With music and vocal parts that are both strongly catchy, this song was irresistible from the first time I heard it, and it's still one of my favorite driving and "shout along with" songs.

To buy the All-American Rejects' second album, Move Along (the title track and second single is truly fantastic), go here (physical) or here (digital). If you're looking for something else in this sort of poppy vein, though, I'd also recommend at least getting "Swing Swing" from their self-titled debut album.

Next up: maybe something British or Swedish.

Lookin' for somebody, not a wimp with a tan

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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