Best day ever!
OK, well, I realize I said that a few days ago, but any day where I can finally buy Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" must officially be the BEST day ever. For now.
...though now I'm spoiled and want to know why Linda's single isn't yet on iTunes yet (and Ola's)--then it really will be the best day ever. Oh well--I'm sure they'll be there soon.
Edit: and oh boy, am I going to need all the great Melodifestivalen songs that I can get, given what Spain's just gone and (unsurprisingly) done.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
Bring the level up
Sigh...looks like I used up pretty much all of my Melodifestival luck last week! I can't complain too much, given who made it last week, but boy, would have been nice if we could have had...well, more later!
Edit: it's difficult for me to comment too much on how well people sang due to some background noise during many of the performances (seriously, what are you doing washing dishes and frying stuff during Melodifestivalen?! Don't you realize what this is?). Songwise, though, Ola's was always my favorite out of this group, and it looked like he gave a great performance. Having it go through really would have completely made my Melodifestival year, so, though I'd prepared myself for Sibel winning even if Ola made it past his first heat, it was still a real disappointment to me to see him not make it.
As it turned out, in terms of what I wanted, the first two head-to-heads had good results, with Sibel beating E-Type/The Poodles and Ola beating Caracola (though as I'd said, Ola vs. Caracola was a tough one for me--I mean, I definitely preferred Ola, but I liked Caracola's song a lot too), but after that everything fell apart. Androla lost to Nordman and Terran lost to Suzzie. Sibel then beat Ola and--well, I'm not really sure who I would've wanted to see win in the Nordman vs. Suzzie matchup, but either way I wasn't going to be particularly excited about the result. Nordman won out in the end (I do give them credit for switching up the performance/camera shots used, though; before, the "witch burning" felt really anticlimatic, while tonight it was much more emphasized).
I may have more thoughts tomorrow.
Edit again: what what? I didn't realize all the songs, those still in the competition and those out of it, would be for sale after tonight (edit: or that they'd be for sale in digital music stores besides Telia)--oh, to have a Swedish credit card...I don't think it's all set up perfectly at the moment, though, unless they really mean to charge 79 kr for "Hur Svårt Kan Det Va?"--I mean, it's a great track and all that, but that's probably not right. Update: it's been fixed and is now going for the bargain basement price of 1 kr.
Edit: it's difficult for me to comment too much on how well people sang due to some background noise during many of the performances (seriously, what are you doing washing dishes and frying stuff during Melodifestivalen?! Don't you realize what this is?). Songwise, though, Ola's was always my favorite out of this group, and it looked like he gave a great performance. Having it go through really would have completely made my Melodifestival year, so, though I'd prepared myself for Sibel winning even if Ola made it past his first heat, it was still a real disappointment to me to see him not make it.
As it turned out, in terms of what I wanted, the first two head-to-heads had good results, with Sibel beating E-Type/The Poodles and Ola beating Caracola (though as I'd said, Ola vs. Caracola was a tough one for me--I mean, I definitely preferred Ola, but I liked Caracola's song a lot too), but after that everything fell apart. Androla lost to Nordman and Terran lost to Suzzie. Sibel then beat Ola and--well, I'm not really sure who I would've wanted to see win in the Nordman vs. Suzzie matchup, but either way I wasn't going to be particularly excited about the result. Nordman won out in the end (I do give them credit for switching up the performance/camera shots used, though; before, the "witch burning" felt really anticlimatic, while tonight it was much more emphasized).
I may have more thoughts tomorrow.
Edit again: what what? I didn't realize all the songs, those still in the competition and those out of it, would be for sale after tonight (edit: or that they'd be for sale in digital music stores besides Telia)--oh, to have a Swedish credit card...I don't think it's all set up perfectly at the moment, though, unless they really mean to charge 79 kr for "Hur Svårt Kan Det Va?"--I mean, it's a great track and all that, but that's probably not right. Update: it's been fixed and is now going for the bargain basement price of 1 kr.
Flyin' on a G-V, G-V
It's nice to see no expense was spared in the filming of Jesse McCartney's new music video.
...I'm not sure whether director Sanji (also of "Break Anotha") just specializes in making videos seem cheaper than they actually are or whether he's the go-to guy for when you know you've got no money to spend. On the plus side, it might have comedy rewatch value--I burst out laughing at Jesse's expression and finger wagging at the "no more making you cry" line at 2:46. Plus, it's always nice to watch music videos and think "I could make that!", isn't it?
...I'm not sure whether director Sanji (also of "Break Anotha") just specializes in making videos seem cheaper than they actually are or whether he's the go-to guy for when you know you've got no money to spend. On the plus side, it might have comedy rewatch value--I burst out laughing at Jesse's expression and finger wagging at the "no more making you cry" line at 2:46. Plus, it's always nice to watch music videos and think "I could make that!", isn't it?
Friday, March 07, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
You're the last time I'll ever compromise
Despite loving "Over And Over," I've never really paid much attention to Asia-focused producer-and-singer project Sweetbox; with that one exception, none of the songs I've heard from them have really had the ability to stick with me. Somehow, though, I still ended up paying semi-attention when American-born Jade, Sweetbox's singer for the past seven years or so, decided to go solo and giving her first solo release, the mini-album Out Of The Box, a listen (I still really like the somewhat trashy uptempo/urban/dance "In The Hall Of The Mountain King"-sampling "Crush," released beforehand as a duet, even with its dubious lyrics), and was interested enough to listen to her first full solo album, Bittersweet Symphony, released just a few days ago.If you're looking for something that screams "international hit" or "you must listen to me now!", you won't find it here, but if you're looking for pleasant cute pop not made with real instruments and with lots of manipulated vocal effects and sparkling producer-created sounds, you'll find several enjoyable songs on the album. I wouldn't urge anyone to rush to add Bittersweet Symphony to your must buy ASAP list, but there are a few tracks that may make your music listening just that little bit brighter, if you don't mind your pop very bubbly, very produced, and very cheesy...which I don't! (Also, I suspect it's not that different from typical Sweetbox material, which does make it odd that I'm listening to it after having bypassed their earlier work.)
The Last
You're not the last man left
Or the last of my disasters
You're not my last mistake
Or the first to make me cry
Lucky Lady (with verses that are proof positive that lyrics can't really mean that much to me; just give me some meaningful-sounding "eee-aaay-ohhh"s and I'm happy)
California wait for me
'Cause I swear I'm coming home
Eee-aaaay-ohhh
I'm a lucky lady
But I ain't lucky when I love
If you're not all sugar-rushed and cuted out by now, "We Can Run" and "Always Mine" from the album are in a similar vein, and there are a couple of other different-but-good tracks (if you like your music slightly less...pink, "Undone" and "Unbreakable (Moonlight Sonata)" might be more your style).
To buy Jade Valerie's album Bittersweet Symphony, go here (physical).
Next up: maybe that British singer.
Hur svårt kan det va?
DSTP interviewed Tim Larsson? About the new Linda Bengtzing album?
I'm about to read it as soon as I can calm down, but I had to mention it here.
I'm about to read it as soon as I can calm down, but I had to mention it here.
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Let go and just show me who you are
"Open Your Heart," Birgitta Haukdal's entry for Iceland back in the 2003 Eurovision, was--like many recent Icelandic Eurovision entries--pretty great (Last.fm describes it as an "uplifting mid-tempo ballad" and while that's exactly right, it fails to get across how completely lovely the song is--skip past the first 30 seconds of the clip above to get to her performance of it). When Birgitta decided to really properly pursue a solo career of her own (she's the lead singer of Írafár), I was fairly excited--I'd be very interested in an album of songs in the vein of "Open Your Heart." Even "Mynd Af Þér," her entry in Iceland's 2006 national final, was a not bad pop song that, even if not being a song I ever really listen to, had a style that left open the possibility of an album with songs I might like.Sadly--for my sake, anyway--Birgitta's album ended up being a bunch of folk-poppy ballads (though I think I heard a song she did for a film once and liked that, but then haven't been able to find it anywhere since). I was disappointed, but moved on--if I could adjust to a world without an album based on "If I Had Your Love," I could live with no album based on "Open Your Heart"--even pretty much ignoring her duet in this year's national final...until I saw recently that she'd released a couple of remixes of songs from the aforementioned album. I've really been enjoying them; they've not turned the songs into big swooshy uptempo dance-pop numbers, but they've given them an enchanting electronica/dance spin which goes a long way towards freshening them up. I don't know that these remixes will be to everyone's taste, as they're a little more laid-back than much of the dance-influenced music I post (though not lounge), but I'm quite taken with them at the moment.
Ein (Remix Edit)--there's something about the deepest part of the beat here that reminds me of Madonna's "Jump," but the vocal is totally different. Birgitta's whole "earth mother" vibe that she channeled for the album artwork manages to remain present, but in a whole new form, much more (and I know this is an overused word) ethereal and intriguing. In fact, I think I could just stop writing here and let the cover of the original album and the cover of the remix single/EP do the talking.
Album:
Remixes (to be fair, I imagine this was a promo shot or inner album artwork for the original album, but not owning a physical copy of the album, I didn't see it):
There you go--that really captures the change in feel perfectly. More life, a little bit earthy, a little bit spacey, and definitely a big improvement; major credit goes out to Airport Route for suddenly reviving my interest in Birgitta--could we get remixes for all the tracks on the album? Or even just a whole new album? I'm now interested to hear their own work as well.To buy Birgitta's EP/single The Remixes, go here (digital).
Next up: maybe something else Icelandic, or that British singer, or a singer I'm not sure how to even begin to pinpoint where they're from
J'oublie le monde autour juste 5 minutes
Lorie continues to try to sell her incredibly underrated 2Lor En Moi? album (my second favorite album of 2007), today releasing the video for new single "Play," and...
LOOK AT THIS. LOOK AT THIS, WORLD. This album has been Lorie becoming an amazing popstar right in front of your eyes, and this video proves it.
I'm not going to brook any more of this ridiculous "oh, she's just for kids" nonsense--that may have been the case before last year, but "Play" was one of the best songs I heard in all of 2007, a stomping dance-pop song backed by strings and with lovely sweet-sounding verses that make the punchy chorus all the more amazing, and Lorie's gone and made yet another glossy video for it, one that's even better than the one for "Je Vais Vite," full of wind machined hair, flashing club lights, fantastic outfits, the very best sort of posing, and an incredible sense of dynamism.
If one of the Minogues or Britney had made this people would be praising it or at the least paying attention to it, but no, because it's Lorie she's destined to a future of being mocked by people from France and being ignored by everyone outside of France (and quickly rejected if they do notice her).
Those references I just made, though, aren't to say that Lorie sounds like those artists--in fact, that's another reason 2Lor En Moi? is even more deserving of attention: sure, it's got a track with Richard X on it, but the most exciting thing of all about it is that it's primarily French-created and manages to carve out its own sound. If I was French, I'd be proud of that--that our songwriters and producers can create top-quality dance-pop that doesn't have to shamelessly ape another artist's sound.
This song and video are the stuff international pop fans dream of. Please, France, make it a hit.
LOOK AT THIS. LOOK AT THIS, WORLD. This album has been Lorie becoming an amazing popstar right in front of your eyes, and this video proves it.
I'm not going to brook any more of this ridiculous "oh, she's just for kids" nonsense--that may have been the case before last year, but "Play" was one of the best songs I heard in all of 2007, a stomping dance-pop song backed by strings and with lovely sweet-sounding verses that make the punchy chorus all the more amazing, and Lorie's gone and made yet another glossy video for it, one that's even better than the one for "Je Vais Vite," full of wind machined hair, flashing club lights, fantastic outfits, the very best sort of posing, and an incredible sense of dynamism.
If one of the Minogues or Britney had made this people would be praising it or at the least paying attention to it, but no, because it's Lorie she's destined to a future of being mocked by people from France and being ignored by everyone outside of France (and quickly rejected if they do notice her).
Those references I just made, though, aren't to say that Lorie sounds like those artists--in fact, that's another reason 2Lor En Moi? is even more deserving of attention: sure, it's got a track with Richard X on it, but the most exciting thing of all about it is that it's primarily French-created and manages to carve out its own sound. If I was French, I'd be proud of that--that our songwriters and producers can create top-quality dance-pop that doesn't have to shamelessly ape another artist's sound.
This song and video are the stuff international pop fans dream of. Please, France, make it a hit.
I should know that you're no good for me
I had zero patience or time for American singer Katy Perry's buzz-making first single, so imagine my horror that I find myself actually really liking her new single, apparently (maybe?) due out in April, "Hot N Cold." It still features her being "edgy" in the verses, but it's been said she's got some Swedish songwriters who wrote it with her, which would explain the fact that it's got a good chorus--it's a little bit like Paris's "Nothing In This World" with a little more bounce.
You can listen to it on her MySpace--scroll quickly past the "I'm an individual, me" photo at the top of the page and steer clear of that debut single, but "Hot N Cold" is worth your time.
You can listen to it on her MySpace--scroll quickly past the "I'm an individual, me" photo at the top of the page and steer clear of that debut single, but "Hot N Cold" is worth your time.
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