Talkin' fantasy right to my face

Newsbreak:

Xenomania News pointed out that several songs from Jessie Malakouti's time at Xenomania leaked recently. The best news about this fact? We finally get to hear the full studio recording of "Who's That Man." Though I'd rather have the opportunity to pay for the full quality version, with Jessie moved on to her Jessie and the Toy Boys project, it seemed unlikely we'd ever hear it, making this is something of a relief.



Magnus Carlsson has a new single coming out. It's called "The Best In Me" and is probably produced by Pitchline (based on how much he's worked with them and the fact that it's got a Pitchline remix). The cover can be viewed here, while the tracklist seems to be "The Best In Me," a solo version of "Crying At The Discotheque" (eek), "Feel You (Ruff & Jam Radio Edit)," and an extended remix by Pitchline of "The Best In Me."

On the "I'm way behind in reporting this" front, Nadine Coyle's debut single is "Insatiable," written by her and Guy Chambers. It's apparently not a ballad and bears a resemblance to the Bangles, though the latter is a comparison from the Sun so take it with a grain of salt. Fingers crossed--I really want this solo project to live up to Nadine's potential. Fellow Girls Aloud member Cheryl Cole's lead single for her second album is called "Promise This;" there's a low quality clip here, but I'll need to hear at least the chorus to know for sure what to make of it. Speaking of Girls Aloud, I don't think I've mentioned here yet that Luciana Caporaso reported she was writing songs with Sarah Harding. As I've said elsewhere, that seems like it could be a good match; Luciana's punky pop-dance work might be a good way to channel Sarah's apparent love of rock and sometimes shouty vocals (and Sarah's solo Xenomania songs aren't a million miles away from Portobella songs like "Meet Me At The Y Bar" or Kylie's Luciana-penned "Cupid Boy").

The music video for Kylie Minogue's joy-inducing "Get Outta My Way," one of the songs of the year, is out. Floor choreography! Chair choreography! Actually, the choreography is nowhere near the star of the show--that's got to go to these moments. I usually try to hold the belief that everyone has a perfect right to like and dislike what they want, but if you don't enjoy "Get Outta My Way," it's hard to believe you like music.

Margaret Berger has posted some pictures from a recent photoshoot on her Facebook page, as well as stated her new single will be out this fall (maybe as early as September, but I may have misunderstood what she was referring to). We were told earlier to expect it as a spring/summer single so there could understandably be some skepticism, but hopefully we'll have new Margaret music soon. Now, if only Bertine Zetlitz would give us a release date...

a1's new album, Waiting For Daylight, is out October 11 in Norway. That's not news. What is news--or news-ish, anyway--is that you can see a tiny picture of the cover here.

On the subject of albums going to be released in Norway, Melodi Grand Prix 2010 contestant Bjørn Johan Muri's album, Airwaves, comes out September 13. The tracklist and cover are here.

Swedish Stereo broke the new about the tracklist and cover for Ola's third album, out September 15; you can view them here. At ten tracks, four of which are already available for purchase, it's a short album, but hopefully it's got the gems he's capable of being a vehicle for.

The summery new single from British boyband JLS, "Ay Mama" (which features Shontelle), sounds kind of nice, based on a live performance of it.

Alcazar are featured on an Anders Hansson/Sharon Vaughn song on the new Same Difference album. Details at Scandipop.

Make the same mistakes but I can't walk away

The new a1 single is their third great release in a row, meaning that everything they've offered as part of their comeback has, so far, been worth buying. Now, if only there were somewhere from which those of us outside Norway could buy it...



The studio version is streaming here.

It's the their third time in a row offering up a sparkly mid-tempo ballad as a single, but somehow they manage to change up the template just enough each time to make me fall all over again (though if forced I'd peg their Melodi Grand Prix offering, "Don't Wanna Lose You Again," as my least favorite of the three). I don't care if the crowd was forced into punching the air and singing along--their group actions feel like the naturally counterpart to "In Love And I Hate It" and give me just the slightest hint of goosebumps.

In love and it's so overrated

Newsbreak:

Mexican group Belanova's new single, "Nada de más," comes out August 2, apparently. You can listen to a clip below. It sounds pretty fantastic, but then again, I would expect nothing less for the lead single for their new album, Sueño Electro I.



Swedish singer Nanne's new album, En Rastlös Själ, comes out October 6. It's been preceded by the singles "Otacksamhet" and "I Natt Är Jag Din," with one more, the title track, to be released August 18. The cover of the album is at left and the single cover can be viewed here. Other upcoming Swedish albums you may be interested in: Darin's Lovekiller (August 18), Ola's new album (September 15--at least, that's what I read at one point, but Ola now says that it's only 28 days away), and Robyn's Body Talk Pt. II (September 6 internationally). You should be able to buy all those albums from Bengans, though Ola's album isn't listed yet and it probably makes more financial sense to buy Robyn's album from a music distributor in your home country.

The third proper single from the reformed a1, following on "Take You Home" and "Don't Wanna Lose You Again," is "In Love And I Hate It." It's out August 4 in Norway, but the group has been performing it live recently. If you want an advance feel for what it sounds like, here's one such performance.

You know "Champagne Lemonade," that great new song from upcoming British singer Ed Drewett which I wrote about a month ago? It's co-written by Tim Powell of Xenomania. Now we know why it's so buzzily fun. Unusually, for a song coming from a member of Xenomania that we actually get to hear, its only authors are Tim and Ed.

In the end it's all or nothing

A few random notes (some covered earlier on Twitter):



The new song I've found most enchanting in the past few days is from Matisse, the American singer who used to be one half of Brit & Alex (of the pop-rock song "Let It Go" from Step Up 2). "Better Than Her," by Kevin Rudolf, is one of those songs that sounds musically simple and sweet, a fluffy little midtempo electronic pop song that to non-pop-friendly ears would probably seem totally generic. It's one of the few American songs to come out this year (so far) that I didn't have to work at liking and always look forward to playing again, though, so for my money, any success here would be well-deserved.

Swedish group Dyno has several new songs and song clips on MySpace. Their debut album is one to get excited about now, '80s synth-pop-rock that fills a gap that desperately needed to be filled. Another reminder: these guys, among other things, worked on the Erik Hassle album. Their songwriting skills are solidly in place.

Danish singer Nabiha's '60s-sounding debut single "Deep Sleep" was fine, but it was "The Enemy," her probable second single, that most got me interested in her album, Cracks, out February 1. The full studio version of "The Enemy" and several other new songs are streaming over on her MySpace (and clips of all the songs are on Danish iTunes). I very much recommend checking them out; producer Carl Rydén has reined in some of his dance tendencies to create a fun electronic pop sound that, though commercial, mainstream pop, brings just a bit of quirky something that feels a bit different in the case of at least half the tracks streaming there (something that I didn't really feel to be the case with "Deep Sleep"). It's not music that would fit in on U.S. radio, but its style would mesh with the UK music scene (not that that means it will).



I was thrilled that a1 made it through to the Melodi Grand Prix final in Norway this past weekend (as well as pleased that Karoline Garfjell qualified to the second chance round). They're only two songs into their post-reformation career (well, three if you count the [less good] song that starts around 50:45 here, taken from a telethon for Haiti, plus a couple more we've heard bits of in video blogs), but I'm very glad to have them back; they're making exactly the music I'd want them to be making at this point in time. I've had a post sitting as a draft saying more about "Take You Home" for ages, but if nothing else, it's certain to appear in my year end countdown (which is, um, still coming).

Linda Sundblad's new album, Manifest, is due out March 3. If it's full of songs as good as the three we've heard so far, it will be worth listening to.

After what seems like a long time away, young Swedish electronic duo Lo-Fi-Fnk will make a new song available on YouTube on February 2. You'll also be able to download it on that date if you sign up for an event on Facebook.

Let's go chase those plastic neon lights

I should probably say something about the second semifinal of the Norwegian Melodi Grand Prix, which took place this weekend, but the clips of this coming week's entries from the third semifinal have me far too dizzy to think about anything else.

The main reason for me spending more time at this website with the song clips is Karoline Garfjell's "Tokyo Night." Electropop, even that with some coolness in mind, in Eurovision national finals is not unheard of, but, unless I'm forgetting something, I haven't heard a really great example for several years, the kind that sounds good to me even outside of the novelty attention grab of that type of song in the Eurovision context. The slinky "Tokyo Night" finally gives us one. Apparently Karoline made it to the semifinals of Idol the same year as Margaret Berger, and "Tokyo Night" sounds like it could easily have been on Margaret's second album. Really a top-quality song which deserves so much better than it will probably get on the night.

The other highlight of the clips is, for me, my beloved A1's "Don't Want To Lose You Again," a ballad which further shows off that, yes, they can deliver the goods on this comeback because they're actually good songwriters.

Belinda Braza also has a cute little electropop song (co-written by Maltese frequent national final songwriter Gerard James Borg), more on the kitschy bubbly side than Karoline's, which I'm looking forward to hearing more of. Too fluffy to make an impression, I expect, but I'll enjoy it.

As for the other entries, Mira Craig may have written the top five-placing "Hold On Be Strong" back in 2008, but I've never been fully won over by her own voice, and it doesn't sound like that's going to really change in the case of "I'll Take You High." Her throatiness helps the song, giving it a welcome desperation, but even then that quality isn't fully explored. I usually enjoy Fredrik Kempe and Hanne Sørvaag's work, but it's too early to judge Didrik Solli-Tangen's "My Heart Is Yours," a Josh Groban-like ballad. The Diamond's "European Girl." a youthful summery entry that feels like an electronic pop-rock song, is catchy, but it seems like its mainly two word chorus might get annoying over the course of a song, and, if nothing else, is unlikely to hold up in a substantive way, despite a few nice little musical touches (like those we hear at the end of the clip). Fred Endresen's "Barracks On The Hill," like last year's pulled Georgian entry "We Don't Wanna Put In," uses sound-alike words to reference a political figure. Pop-rock in a Ronan Keating style, it actually sounds better than I expected based on the gimmicky title, if you ignore the title line, but once again, I'm not sure if a whole song can support the weight of the concept.

This sounds, for me, like the easy highlight of the MGP semifinals, with possibly more good songs than the other two combined. Hopefully they'll be even better in their complete versions.

Nothing in common

This is more of a Twitter-riffic post than something with enough substance to merit space on the blog, but Ben Adams, following up his crazy/brilliant video about a1's dance routines, has posted a video of a1 working on new songs that includes clips of some of the songs. They're working with David Eriksen, a Norwegian songwriter who I tend to associate with a kind of pure pop sound (several of the songs on the Saturdays' last album were by him, including "Lies" and "Set Me Off"), on that first song, which sounds more uptempo electronic than I was expecting. There's also more Zac Efron and Robert Pattinson than I might have expected.



Let's be honest: I'd probably buy that first song, the one I'm guessing is called "No Regrets," and "Nothing In Common" right now if I could.

Things were so different, now you're gone, I thought it'd be easy, I was wrong

More songwriter notes and random artist tidbits (I really am going to do more in depth posts, less "news bullet"-y, soon):

Johan "Kermit" Bobäck is working with Darin on new music (he previously collaborated with him on "Seasons Fly").

Apparently British boy band a1 are reuniting for some concerts in Norway in early December and will be performing both old and (gasp!) new songs. I am not ashamed to admit I got more than a bit excited listening to the group rehearse modern classic "Caught In The Middle." Speaking of new songs, Ben Adams, who appeared on this blog many a time in its early days, has a new-ish song on his MySpace (listen to it in higher quality on Facebook), "The Dust Won't Settle," which is really pretty pleasant (albeit sad) pop-rock--more like third album a1 than most of what we've heard of his solo album, but it shows he's just as great with a melody and with his voice. Love it. Ben has also (as I think I've mentioned before) written for Alexandra Burke's upcoming album.

Blake Lewis apparently worked with Darkchild for his upcoming album Heartbreak on Vinyl (out October 6). Listen to some beats but no vocals in this video.

If you're a sucker for über-bubblegummy Swedish pop that sounds like it could have come straight out of the '90s--I mean the really sugary sweet, cheesy kind--you might want to listen to Three's "Lucky Number." Who are Three? Three blonde sixteen year old triplets. You can probably already imagine what the music sounds like. Of course, me being me, bubblegum pop is always welcome, especially if it's got a Swedish connection.

Georgie Dennis, sister of Cathy and songwriter in her own right, has a song called "Dirty Drum" on her MySpace that sounds like it's sung by Elin Lanto. There are better, non-Elin songs there, though.

Carl Falk uploaded some new songs to his MySpace a few months ago. I presume they're demos, though I've got no actual proof of that. My favorite is "Shameless," co-written by him, Lindy Robbins, Kristian Lundin, and Rami Yacoub; it's very pop.

Speaking of demos uploaded on MySpace months ago, Tony Nilsson put the demo of Elin Lanto's "Discotheque" on his MySpace. I'm a total demo addict, as I've convinced before, so for me, hearing the substantial differences--though in this case, it's not a matter of voice, since even the demo contains Elin's voice--is really fascinating. The final version is definitely better, but there are some lost elements which, though they probably had to be lost for the sake of the song, I love.

Come January, hit the shops and take my gifts back

If you read this blog in its first year of existence, you'll know how much I loved the solo career of this former a1 member--in fact, I fell in love with his solo music before I'd heard anything from a1, though I changed that quickly and fell in love with a1, too.

His debut solo single "Sorry" should have been a much bigger hit than it was, mainly because it's great but secondly because I still desperately need to hear It's Brutal Out There, his debut solo album (I'm never giving up hope). The songs on the album sampler (amazing fun danceable songs "Get Off My Girl" and "Don't Tread On My Toes" and excellent ballad "I Don't Wanna Stay") were all unfailingly great (and still sound fresh these, what, three, four years on), as have been some of the songs he's posted on his MySpace over the years, b-side "Delicious," and songs he's written, like Sergey Lazarev's "Fake" (and you don't know how much it's driven me crazy to not be able to hear in full the songs in that Writing 2006 video he posted--work with Jörgen Elofsson, Eg White, Robin Thicke [though maybe for Thicke], and typical quirky Ben pop songs...life is not complete until I've heard some of the songs in that video).

The point of all this "I love his music" is to communicate that such is my level of liking this artist that it's practically required that I mention any new music he chooses to give us. It's for that reason, then, that I report that he's recently unveiled a Christmas song. Being him, of course, half of it is innuendo and the other half is snarky bemoaning about the Christmas season. It actually is a good catchy mid-to-uptempo pop song, though, and though it's a song probably never meant to go anywhere beyond MySpace and is sort of deliberately restrained and semi-chintzy, I imagine it'll get a lot of plays from me. It makes me want this singer back on the scene even more so.

Also, if you think "Same Old Brand New You" is anything other than AMAZING, you are wrong. One of the best boy band songs ever, and that's saying an awful lot--one of the best pop songs ever, probably.



There's nowhere this song can be purchased, but you can visit this artist's MySpace here and buy the single for "Sorry" here (physical).

Next up: a demo from an American artist.

We keep covering the same old ground

British boy band a1 really were all sorts of fantastic. I know I've mentioned before that, over the course of three albums, they really covered every sort of boy band music you could want: first, super-cheesy '90's-sounding stuff, then the more 'N Sync-style stuff, then the "boy band with guitars" sound, sort of BBMak-esque, I guess, but, even at the point they'd moved on beyond the light pop sound (which I loved), they continued to give us fantastic remixes--the Almighty mix of "Caught In The Middle" is one of my favorite remixes by them (not that I've heard that many, to be fair), Johan S (there's a good chance you've heard him on remix duty for BWO) gave us a remix of "Make It Good" that I think I prefer even more, and there are remixes of "Same Old Brand New You," "Summertime Of Our Lives," and "Be The First To Believe" that I recommend as well (even if I have yet to buy the import CD singles to actually get high quality versions of all of them). That's a tangent, though--the song I'm posting today is from their third and final non-compilation album, Make It Good, which, in my opinion, is underrated, with a depth that goes beyond the big single "Caught In The Middle" and "Make It Good."

(Random fact: I was actually introduced to a1 because I liked Ben Adams's solo efforts, not the other way around.)

Isn't It Cheap--I suppose this is about as "dirty" as a1 get, i.e., not very, but I think they're trying to go for a more down-and-dirty sound in a guitars way and hoping that lyrics like a light swear word and a girl pleading to "let me take you to a place I know/right beside the dirty little picture show" (but "nothing comes for free") are going to contribute to that atmosphere. It doesn't really make you buy them as the "bad boy" type, but it doesn't have to--the song's catchy enough on its own, and it's more the effects that have been done on their vocals that make you accept the song, that make it sound less straightforwardly guitar-pop. That doesn't make any sense, does it? Let's start over: the verses are spent with processed vocals and the choruses show a1's pretty consistent ability to come up with catchy tunes, though here that catchiness doesn't just come from the vocal melody itself, which is fairly flat, but the backing instrumentation. The middle 8 is pretty great as well, even if a change from the often processed vocals from this song--that ending note of it is a nice touch.

And, I know I've posted it before, but I'm reposting it anyway:

This Ain't What Love Is About--and here we go back to a1 in straightforward catchy "boy band with guitars" mode again. They genuinely had a way with choruses, and instrumentation, and...really, well, all the music-related stuff. There's a subtle sense of...musicianship that comes with the songs on their third album which really helps their music pop--guitars are too often abused in the search for credibility (it's the "let's just throw some in here and everyone will buy this!" strategy, and usually when that happens, the people doing it don't really know how to use guitars to their best ability), but they can be the perfect touch for a song when used properly--and on the best songs on Make It Good, that's exactly how they are used (though in a wash over you way; these aren't in-your-face guitars, but more ones that just happen to be there, in the background, contributing).

Neither of the songs I've posted today were even singles; if you've never heard "Caught In The Middle" or "Make It Good," I definitely recommend looking them up (they've got videos on YouTube)--a lot of people don't like anything else by a1 but still really like "Caught In The Middle"--and buying a1's third album Make It Good here (physical) or here (digital).

Next up: maybe Shayne Ward, although I think that post will probably be completely irrelevant by the time it happens.