Empty heart

I'm just running in here really quick to say that I am SO. NERVOUS. This was a genuinely great heat--sometimes great songs, sometimes great performances, and in some bases both great songs and great performances.

More later, but right now, I'm so so worried for the sake of one of these songs. Oh please don't let it get totally disqualified...something I can all too easily imagine right now...

I'm lookin' for an escape from my routine

I wrote about Latvian singer DJ Ella and her stompy dance-influenced single "Welcome To The Club" last summer. I'll freely admit that her brand of dance-pop isn't revolutionary by any stretch (nor does it sound anything like her enjoyable Swedish-penned national final song for Eurovision 2006, "Heaven In Your Eyes"), but I've enjoyed both of her last two singles, the most recent of which was "DJ Take Me," released this past December. The album from which both those singles are taken is said to be out in early 2008, and though there's no guarantee I'll buy it, she's got me interested enough that I'll want to hear clips from it.

DJ Take Me (Radio)--this dance-pop song (a cover, but in my opinion, an improvement) starts promisingly, with beeps and the hope of maybe even some good swooshiness. It begins to sound kind of ropey around 0:23, which is also where the pronunciation changes entirely, and starts to sound a lot more like the Ella we know--I swear, it really sounds like this song is sung by someone else with Ella occasionally adding in a few words here and there. Luckily, it all comes back together for the sweet floaty chorus, which is still kept upbeat and danceable with the music underneath and the way the vocals are overlapped and processed. It probably won't have major international mainstream chart success, but there's so much that's enjoyable about it--that chorus, the gospel-style backing vocals that come in briefly later in the song--that it's easy to listen to; it's got an uplifting feel to it. Even if its play never expands beyond Latvia's and France's dance-pop radios, it's worth some plays on your iPod.

You can buy DJ Ella's single "DJ Take Me" from her CD Baby site here (physical).

Next up: Melodifestivalen.

Even when you fall and it all goes wrong

I think I argued last year that nothing says love like Swedish dance-pop--and so, with that in mind, that's what I'm posting today. Is the song I'm about to post Fredrik Kempe's best song? No, but I still love it, and at any rate You Don't Know Pop and Don't Stop The Pop have both featured songs from him before, and made great choices on which songs of his to highlight.

The song might also be familiar to you from...oh, well, probably not, but I knew it from Gareth Gates's first album. Fredrik recorded his own version of it for his second album, Bohéme, and kept it in its original ballad style. However, near the end of the album, you get this remix, which may not appeal to fans of the original, but that I still love.

A little bit about Fredrik, just in case you missed the aforementioned earlier features on him on other blogs: he debuted as a singer in 2002 with the great dance-opera hybrid "Vincero." He's gone on to release two albums as well as compete in Melodifestivalen twice, once by himself singing "Finally" and once with Sanna Nielsen singing "Du och jag mot världen." Last year, he gave us some of Melodifestivalen's best songs, including "Cara Mia," "Våger Du Våger Jag," and "Rainbow Star." This year, he's got two entries, Charlotte Perrelli's "Hero" and Daniel Mitsogiannis's "Pame," both of which I'm very excited to hear. You may also be familiar with his song "Miss America," which Måns Zelmerlöw covered to great effect on his album Stand By For....

With You All The Time (NiteSite Version)--this isn't danced up enough to the level of calling it ridiculous dance-pop (one of my favorite subgenres), but I love what the transformation does for the song. It still starts out kind of slow, but then, as the chorus nears its end and we approach the bridge, a cute, light beat begins to sneak into the music and the tempo begins to pick up--then the chorus hits, and it's pure sweet joy--just cheery fun. It's another of those cases where the remix tweaks everything about the song to make it exactly what I woud've wanted it to be. It would be an easy song to pick on, but why bother? It's there for the people who want it, and easily ignored if you don't. Plus, give me a dance beat under anything, and I'm usually happy.

To buy Fredrik Kempe's second album, Bohéme, go here (physical).

Next up: Melodifestivalen?

We all fight the hands of time

...or maybe we'll stay sentimental a little bit longer.

I've spent the past half week or week or so being quite taken with the work of Swedish singer Zandra. She released her self-titled debut album back in early 2005 (when she was 25, I think), but I only just got it--it was one of those cases of mp3 blogs doing what they're supposed to do; I saw the cover and remembered reading about her back on Catchy Tunes of Sweden, decided to get it (it was really cheap), and haven't looked back since. It's really a shame she seems to have disappeared (from what I know)--after Zandra, she released another single, "Why," but I can't find out what's happened to her since. Her singles really should have performed better in Sweden--she's got this great voice, with just a little grit in it, just enough to not detract from her songs but to give them that added ability to really be heartrending--honestly, the way she sings the chorus/prechorus lines "he is the only one that I ever really knew" in the power ballad "All We Need," if it wasn't for the song's lyrics--and heck, even with the lyrics--is devastating; I mean, she may use "we're all we need"--the present tense--but if this song doesn't convey loss (or at least struggle) to a T, I don't know what does.

That's not the song I'm posting today, though; instead, it is another kind of pop power ballad (though one with a faster tempo) type of thing, but it's a great one.

Invincible--yet another song that manages to perfectly capture a certain emotion or certain time in your life. I don't know what it is about Zandra's voice, but she manages to completely convince me that she means what she's singing during that chorus. I know there are loads of songs looking back on the joys and foolishness of youth (and I have do admittedly have special love for songs dealing with that subject), but that chorus

...when we were young and stupid
We had no limits we believed
So much wiser for our dreams
Embracing life together
We'd be around forever
So invincible we were

just captures it all so perfectly and succinctly for me. It may be a song looking back on when you just didn't know better, but, amidst the lyrics about a state of mind that's lost, the music manages to give the song a hint of uplift as well--like that little flashback high you get just from thinking about those times--as Zandra tries to convince the person she's singing to that there's still hope for them to recapture just a little bit of that. It's nostalgia that causes amusement and pain...and just that little bit of last-ditch hope.

(Random fact: Sofia Loell of the amazing, someone call a TV show right now so we can get this song featured "War Of Life" is one of "Invincible"'s co-writers. Seriously, if you've ever liked a sweetly voiced female singer-songwriter song in your entire life, do yourself a favor and go find "War Of Life." And Lisa Miskovsky's "Sweet Misery," too.)

You can buy Zandra's debut album, Zandra, here (physical) or here (digital). Also, her album and singles are available in all countries' iTunes stores.

Next up: maybe another female Swedish singer...though maybe I should try to sneak in a few artists from outside Scandinavia at some point...

You and I were made to get love right

Both times I've seen the video for American band Mêlée's "Built To Last"--once on TV and once on YouTube--I haven't been able to fight off a smile, even though the voice inside my head is going "'This is real/This is good/It warms the inside/just like it should'? Gag me with a spoon!" Can we blame it on the time of year?



I'm sure without the video and all its references to famous love scenes I would've had no interest in the song at all--it's just basic guy-fronted band-with-piano singer-songwritery nonsense, though admittedly with a guy on backing vocals that sounds like Chad Kroeger out of Nickelback (FYI, that wouldn't be a plus)--but...well, the video is still making me smile on the third time through, so I'm sharing it.

Anyway, if you're interested, apparently this comes from their second album, released in spring 2007, but it must just be getting pushed now-ish in certain places, though the video has apparently been out for a while (judging by how long ago some were put on YouTube).

Ridiculous overdone sentimentality over for the moment.

What do I have to prove to you?

I am such a synth addict. Really, it's kind of ridiculous. I mean, a song doesn't even have to be that good and if it's got some semi-interesting catchy synth part, I'm totally on board. So yes, even though there are probably about a million artists out there aping that '80's synth sound, I tend to enjoy pretty much every one of them, though to different degrees.

Take today's song, for example. The first twenty seconds, with their synths and female voice speaking French (I presume), are just so delicious that I'm pre-programmed to like the song. I kind of can't help thinking of another synth-pop song that features prominent repetition of a female name in the chorus--namely, Van She's "Kelly"--and that that song does it better. Still, that's really too high a standard to hold your average song to, considering how a-maz-ing and perfect "Kelly" is. '80's esque male vocal swooning over some synth backgrounds, though, and I'm there--and this song does that.

I should probably actually get to writing about the group behind this song. They're called Nixon, they're from Norway (there's something kind of nice about that, that this sound is coming from Norway), they're made up of four guys between the ages of 23 and 26, and they've got an album out in late April. Also, one of their members is one letter away from sounding like he used to be in a1 (but he wasn't). And really, that's about all I know. I've played the song a bunch of times, though, so I thought it was worth sharing, though we'll have to see how it holds up over the long run.

Tiffany

Nicely enough, Nixon's single "Tiffany" has been made very easy for international customers to buy; it's available on all iTunes stores. It'll only be posted for a little bit since it's a single currently on the charts.

Next up: maybe that Swedish singer.

...how a beat can trigger all emotions

A few weeks ago, I said Elin's new song was Minogue-esque; well, today's song is so blatantly trying to be Minogue that it wouldn't be too difficult at all to imagine someone other than Swedish singer Sylwia Chaliss is singing it...well, that would be the case if it didn't feel kind of more on the level of castoff; Elin's song manages to have a certain spark or freshness to it and, though I think the song I'm posting today is fun, it doesn't really feel "fresh" (then again, it was recorded years ago).

All that said, though, it is a fun way to spend 3:17, even if it's not going to change the world. Sylwia was a model who was kind of launched as a Swedish answer to Kylie back around (I think) 2003-2004. I know she released several singles off of her album Loud Enough, but I have no idea how they performed commercially or on the radios. I think she tried to start a second album campaign, but never made it past another single, "Blinded By The Light," which I've not heard.

Incidentally, the song I'm posting today was covered by Mexican singer Fey for her album Faltan lunas, on which it was renamed "Sólo por bailar."

Declare Dance--a pop-dance-disco song that may feel kind of disposable at first--or even further--listens, but it's the kind of thing you could easily put on when you're just in the mood for this sort of thing and not feel let down by it--it would keep up the fun level, and really, that's all it wants to do. Just don't expect something quality on the level of "Wow" from it. I don't want to downplay it too much, though--it really is a good song, and really, a more international-level singer could have recorded it and no one would have blinked an eye; it would have fit right in at that time, or a little earlier (it just might not have been beefy enough for said act to release it as an early single). Plus, I'm kind of addicted to it at the moment. "Declare Dance," like several other songs on the album, was produced by 2N Productions, the same people who've given us some of Kate Ryan's best songs.

Sylwia Chaliss's debut album, Loud Enough, can be bought here (physical), but you can get it at much, much lower prices at places like the Swedish eBay, if you can find a seller who'll ship internationally.

Next up: maybe another female Swedish pop singer, though one with a very different sound.

You tagged your name on my heart and...

A random post about a few artists I like:

Blake Lewis's second single is "How Many Words," according to a MySpace blog from him, and it should be "on the airwaves" probably some time in the next month. In other Blake news, he gave a very out there but very typical Blender interview that I think is in the new Blender with Britney on the cover. Also, he has been looking very presentable lately--good for him. I still think Audio Day Dream was the best album of 2007, and the fact that it was overlooked by so many people is something that really needs to be remedied. Please, if it's my one pop wish of the year, please let "How Many Words" be a success--the song and the album deserve it. If you've somehow missed "How Many Words," one of the synth-pop half-ballads off of the album, take a listen to it below, accompanied strangely by a lot of fire.



Another day, another contender for my favorite single of 2008 (well, two!)--after what seems like forever, my much-loved "Playing Me" by Jonathan Fagerlund is coming out February 20 (clip on MySpace). It's getting a physical release and a music video, which is more than "Angeline" had, so hopefully it does well. I was on some other MySpace semi-recently--a songwriter, I think--and they mentioned the song lined up for Jonathan's third single. Of course, I've now forgotten its title, but it was one we haven't heard a clip of yet. Anyway, buy the perfect boy pop "Playing Me" when it comes out! Hopefully it's made as easy for international customers to buy as "Angeline" was.

There are so many songs other blogs have featured that I've been meaning to say I loved for a long time, Sam Sparro's soul-and-electro "Black & Gold" and the Snoop Dogg feat. Robyn remix of "Sexual Eruption" probably being the two most important. Both are fantastic. Also, I'm very much looking forward to the new West End Girls material.

In blog news, a very very sad goodbye to The Zapping. I already covered most of my feelings on this in a comment over there, but suffice to say that the blogworld feels much emptier now.

How can I, how can I be sure?

I hadn't been 100% convinced by Belgian singer Kate Ryan's new single, "L.I.L.Y." (which stands for "Like I Love You"), despite jumping on every little bit of news or preview of the song released--I just kept thinking that I tend to prefer her more "pop" moments like "Je T'Adore," "Alive," "All For You," "Spinning Around," and "How Many Times," and that this song felt like it should be a hard-hitting near-anthem but just wasn't working for me on a gut level. However, it was Kate, so I really wanted to give it a fair chance and kept returning to it.

I played it again today right after I'd just listened to the first four tracks from Holly Valance's State Of Mind album (two weeks ago I was all about Dannii Minogue, this past week Holly Valance--what female Australian dance/dance-pop artist deserving of more commercial success will I be obsessing over next week? Actually, it'll probably end up being t.a.T.u. or Alizée or something--maybe even Kate herself...I'll probably spend all week delving into Different Stronger and then completely change my mind about which Kate songs are my favorite)--and suddenly, "L.I.L.Y." just made so much more sense to me--it clicked. Not that I'm saying it belongs on that album (it's more electro-house influenced), but somehow the bite to those songs just made me suddenly appreciate the sound Kate's pursuing with this song, as opposed to the cuter pop melodies, even if wrapped in dance beats, of those other songs I named (and still love). "L.I.L.Y." sounds cooler, edgier, and though that's not something that makes me more likely to like a song, it also isn't making me dislike it. More importantly, though, the song now leaves me wanting dance (or maybe pose dramatically) around the room--and that may be the ultimate test for a song's success for me.

L.I.L.Y.

There's no digital store that I know of selling Kate Ryan's "L.I.L.Y." single to customers outside of Belgium, but should you live in Belgium, you can buy the single from iTunes here. Otherwise, the physical single is available for purchase here. It'll only be posted for a little bit since it's a new single.

Speaking of Kate, apparently she's recorded or is going to record a duet with Spanish singer Soraya.

Next up: danceable Swedish pop.