Oh, please, there's no competition

Linda Sundblad's latest single, "2 All My Girls," pulls off the surprising feat of being both more electro-pop and more pop-rock than her last solo outing, 2006's Oh My God! (exclamation point hers). Parts of the song could almost be Lambretta, albeit a tamed version, but those electro bleeps of the verse mark the song out as different territory; you can hear there that the same person who co-wrote Elin Lanto's "Speak 'n Spell" is doing this song. The kicky '80s beat is more Kim Wilde than hard rock. In fact, '90s-styled though the music video may be, "2 All My Girls" keeps up Linda's love of the '80s. This time out, though, her girlish voice coos less--though that girlishness brings an added level of snide to her "yeah, yeah" brush-off--and enters pop-rock anthem territory more...while never actually fully giving itself over to rock. The guitars are kept in check here, used to build the sound but not to drown everything else out. Nick said the song has a "schizo-melody," and he's right, with every part having its own hook, usually multiple.

There's no suble loss like "Lose You," no pure pop joyous release like "Cheat" or "Back In Time," but man, "2 All My Girls" is a heck of a lot of fun. Some people are just born with the attitude to be a popstar*--Linda's got it--and "2 All My Girls"'s songwriters and producers have fine-tuned this song into just enough control to make it pop but with the same explosive release you get from the best rock songs...or the best schlager songs, for that matter, with its great keychange and ad libs as the song moves towards its end. The end result? A killer electro-pop-meets-pop-rock song--which adds up to double the pop appeal.

To buy Linda Sundblad's new single, "2 All My Girls," go here (digital). The song will only be posted for a short time since it's a new single.

*Even if her styling wouldn't always let you know it.

Every second counts

Apparently, Kris Allen's debuting-on-Monday single is a cover of the Script's "We Cry" b-side, "Live Like We're Dying."



Further "apparently," it sounds something like this:



There's not much crazier than judging a song based on a twenty second clip, but a few preliminary thoughts come up.

On the one hand, sounding like the Script--well, sounding like the best half of the Script's musical output--is about as good a sound for Kris as I could have hoped for. On the other hand, I couldn't really recognize his voice for the whole first part of that clip, until he actually sang the "gotta live like we're dying" line--which probably concerns me more than the fact that his lead single is a cover (it's a great song, definitely better than the A-side it accompanied, not exactly widely heard given its B-side status, and suits Kris sound-wise perfectly; what we do hear of his voice here melds into the song perfectly). I think my (very premature) attitude for the moment is: idea of the cover is fine...hopefully it's just not lazily done. He's an American Idol winner, so really, the odds that it will be shouldn't be that great.

Anyway, potentially promising start for Kris--now hopefully he follows through and Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta both deliver.

There's no competition

I need to run, but Linda Sundblad's "To All My Girls"/"2 All My Girls" music video is playing here. More later!

They never listen and they talk too much

Getting spins from me recently: Janet Jackson's "Make Me," covered well at #1 Hits and XOLondon. Apparently it's by Darkchild, which might prompt me to finally finish my week-old "Darkchild is on a roll recently" post.

Speaking of modern grown-up dance-meets-pop: Ysa Ferrer--amazing (with a hat-tip to Aces at the PJ Forums). Why have I not been listening like crazy to her already? Impeccably produced French dance-pop--the kind that probably has substance to it. "Sens interdit" isn't her current single (which is the possibly more fun, more musically intense, and also great but maybe just barely not quite as much so "Last Zoom"), but it was released as a single this year (albeit just barely...January), which means I can count it for my eventual singles countdown. Thank goodness. Expect more about her.



This news comes several months too late, but since Paula Lobos's awesome über-cute dance-influenced pop song "Touch The Light," which Don't Stop The Pop introduced me to, is actually playlisted on P3, here's the video for it:



It was co-written by RamPac, the duo behind Swingfly's equally awesome "Singing That Melody" and "Touch And Go." "Touch The Light" doesn't bear any genre similarities to either of those two hip-pop-rock songs, but it shows a similar ear for an adorable bubbly pop hook, like that of "Touch And Go."

"Touch The Light" is available on iTunes internationally here or you can buy a digital copy regardless of your country here.

Dolly Rockers' new single, "Boys Will Be Boys," is not the song that first hooked me on them, "How Did I End Up With You?", but it is great. It opens with a Katy Perry's "Hot N Cold" style electronic bounce before going into what Paul called Veronicas-ish singing in the bridge and chorus (for some reason it makes me think of the Veronicas doing the chorus in their demo of "All About Us," only with more complete production). If you've only liked "How Did I End Up With You?" so far and found their other material a bit too novelty for you, "Boys Will Be Boys" may help win you over.

I close my eyes, I fall through time

Apropos of nothing, Australian singer (and former Bardot member) Sophie Monk's six year old album track "Come My Way" is still pretty amazing, in that same "wow, what is this amazing song doing sitting here as an album track?" way that A*Teens' "Closer To Perfection" is.



Apparently someone agreed, since Japanese singer Namie Amuro later covered it.

Still, my preferred version is Sophie's, a grown-up modern dance-disco-pop song full of distant longing, solidified in the realm of perfection with its piano and string riffs--one of those sadness-tinged songs to dance the night away to.

If you force me to connect this post to something actually currently relevant, Lake Heartbeat, a blog-featured Swedish indie-credible disco-pop project which features one of "Come My Way"'s co-writers, just released their debut album Trust In Numbers. That's not necessarily a recommendation--I haven't listened to it yet.

"Come My Way" is on Sophie Monk's only solo album, Calendar Girl, which you can buy here (physical) or here (digital).

Leave the past behind

A couple of promo things I've been meaning to mention, but, ridiculously, haven't yet:



I've written about the amazing London-based club night Scandipop before, but Tuesday the 29 provides an extra reason to get excited about the work its creator does: BWO will be performing. The flyer above contains all the information. I'd love to go if I wasn't across an ocean from it.

I'm currently moonlighting--along with a bunch of other great bloggers--as a panelist over at Pop Trash Addicts Pop Panel. This week's results find me being about as middle-of-the-road on everything as it's possible to be, but luckily the rest of the panel makes up for it...a panel that this week includes Robyn Loau. Mike may play up the trashy aspect of his choices for us to review, but it's also true that his panel is doing one of the best jobs of introducing people to great music they might not otherwise take the time to listen to.

Someone to believe in me

Mini-Linda Sundblad update: it looks like "2 All My Girls"/"To All My Girls" is released September 21 by Roxy Recordings, with this picture as the cover (which does make it seem like she might be going by just Linda this time around). I've still got no idea what it sounds like or even if it's worth getting excited about, but it's too late--I already am.

Roxy also has a series of what I'm presuming are some of the new press photos on its website here.

Tuesday edit: Linda just announced the video for the single will be available on MSN.se on Thursday.

I just wanna make you mine

I've been on a little bit of a songwriter/producer playlist kick recently--making iTunes playlists of what I perceive as the best work of some of my favorite behind-the-scenes music creators. They're all still very much works in progress, even beyond the fact that they always have to open to change as long as the songwriter is still creating new songs, but as I was working on the one for Dr. Luke, I was reminded of just how much I love Ciara's "Tell Me What Your Name Is," an album track from Ciara's most recent release, Fantasy Ride.



If you think of Dr. Luke, your mind probably goes straight to his guitar-filled pop c.2005 work (Kelly Clarkson's "Since U Been Gone," Pink's "U + Ur Hand," the Veronicas' "4Ever") or his c.2008 electronic bounce (Katy Perry's "Hot 'n Cold," Flo Rida feat. Kesha's "Right Round"). Obviously there are exceptions to those gross generalizations, but I don't know that I'd group "Tell My What Your Name Is" with any of his other work. If anything, it's more like a version of Ciara's own "The Promise" which takes away some of the emphasis on drums and replaces it with synth sparkles (and has fewer cooed "ooo"s but keeps and even enhances the super-feminity of Ciara's voice on that song and makes it sound even more gorgeous). It's a smoochy, lovey-dovey ballad which has been produced to keep it from sounding too slow--which is just how I like my smoochy ballads.

For the course of the song, we hear none of the crunchy guitars, hyper-kinetic jolts, or filth-flirting lyrics which we sometimes get from Dr. Luke, but three minutes and forty seconds of the most gorgeous, lush R&B-pop sound you can imagine.

Find it on Fantasy Ride, which you can buy here (physical).

I wanna hear you say that you'll be fine and you're doin' OK

Despite loving the pirate-esque "Sun Goes Down" (in which what might otherwise be thought of as a soul voice was matched to welcomingly strange but commercialized pop), I never bought British singer David Jordan's debut album. The clip of his new single, "(Don't Wanna) Hear You Say" Popjustice posted, though, has had me keeping an eye out for his new material.

It was worth the wait. "(Don't Wanna) Hear You Say" is far less distinctive in sound than David's aforementioned second single, but both the Bakerboys Original Mix and the Wideboys Stadium Radio Edit are fantastic. The original mix is slinkier, a side to side shuffle based on a simple percussion beat and prettily kept from sparseness with quickly ascending and descending synths and string-mimicking sounds, while the Wideboys mix dances up the song--which never felt like a full ballad--while still keeping it in radio-friendly territory, but in either version, the strong main melody is accompanied by equally strong production. David's got a voice I enjoy listening to, which means that "(Don't Wanna) Hear You Say" sounds even better than it might in the hands of artists with arguably similar sounds.

According to Popjustice, the single comes out October 26, though I wouldn't be surprised if that date changed again.