If somebody's going to make it, then the somebody oughta be you

As KulPop wrote about earlier, a-ha have a new single, "Foot Of The Mountain," out. If you like Norwegian pop-rock groups not afraid to incorporate electronic elements and '80s influences into their periodically soaring songs, though, you might also want to check out DonkeyBoy and Nixon.

I wrote about Nixon's "Tiffany" several times last year and I've yet to hear anything from the group that rivals that perfect debut single. The lead single for their new album, "Fireflies" (listen on MySpace, buy on iTunes internationally), doesn't change that and doesn't use those electronic elements quite as much as I'd like, doesn't ever fully take off--or maybe it flirts with soaring at the expense of a grounded melody. It's good, though.



Shortly after writing about Nixon for the first time last year, Chris recommended DonkeyBoy, a less-than-ideally-named fellow Norwegian group, and their song "Broke My Eyes," which I don't think I wrote about but should have. It's taken DonkeyBoy a year since then to get out their debut single, but it was worth the wait. I'm not sure how, but "Ambitions" (listen on MySpace, buy digitally internationally here) that single, has taken off on Norwegian iTunes. I meant to recommend it ages ago, but kept not having the time. Luckily, though, as usual, Nick of #1 Hits doesn't let anythig slip through the cracks and featured it. "Ambitions" is a bit less pop-rock, a bit more electro, and features distinctive, often higher vocals, but most importantly, a great mid-tempo '80s-touched melody. If you only check out one of these two songs, make it this one.

On a not at all related note, Norwegian pop-R&B singer Elisabeth Carew, who you might remember from her American-sounding "Destructive" from last year, finally has another single out. It's called "Even If The Rain" (listen to a clip on MySpace) and, though not revolutionary, has a nice electro-pulse backing and sweet mid-tempo pop&B melody. It's available on iTunes internationally, along with b-side "Thunder."

It's getting too much

Apologies for disappearing for a few days--it's that time of the year where offline life always manages to interfere with online life. I basically spent the weekend listening only to a-ha (inspired by KulPop's news about their new single), Sugababes, and songs by Richard X and Xenomania--pseudo-retro. Doing some sort of special is tempting, but that ground has been covered pretty often.

Coming up soon (this week) should be my hopes for and thoughts on Eurovision.

Until then, I leave you with the mindboggling news (stolen from the PJ forums) that Frankmusik is apparently making music for/with Holly Valance. No, really.



Lest we all forget, Holly's State Of Mind was one of the best albums of this decade. Talk about a killer lead single.

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.