I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Swedish dance outfit's male-vocaled and UK-released 2005 single "I'll Be Ready" is based on a sample taken from the theme song to Baywatch, but even without knowing that, I think I'd think it sounded like summer. I guess I do have a pretty high tolerance for--or, maybe more accurately, when it's done really well, total love of that type of song that everyone seemed to try to cash in on after the success of Eric Prydz's "Call On Me": that big swooshy dance-pop sound based primarily around an '80's song. Still, resisting this big giant piece of upbeat cheese seems like a futile task that's not worth attempting to begin with--it's just so fun. I guess you could say it sounds like what I'd like my summers to feel like.
To buy Sunblock's 2006 album I'll Be Ready, go here (physical) or here (digital).
Next up: umm...well, I'm actually going to visit relatives for a few days and I'll be coming back Wednesday or Thursday; I'm not sure if there'll be Internet access there, but rest assured that this is just a couple of days, not another disappearance. After that (or during that, depending on the situation), maybe that Danish song or some actual '80's stuff.
I still genuinely think this is easily one of the year's best songs. I'm not sure that I can add much to my previous post about it, so instead I'll resort to reiterating in a fashion:
Mid-tempo beat kind of like Diddy's "Last Night," the sort of thing that feels like it could be pounded against a wall
+
Lush instrumentation (guitars [but not of the guitar-pop sort], strings) filling it out so it doesn't seem so harsh or inaccessible
+
Divine middle 8--emotion at its best without being overdone or taking away from the power of the song's melody
+
The great verse and bridge, and how they flow into each other and then the chorus
+
That great pop melody in the chorus
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The slightly more ad-libby version of the chorus at the end
+
The lyrics--the sort that fit the music so perfectly, that seem so meaningful whether or not they actually are ("and now my heart's gone cold and the one who brings it back...is you")
= (apparently)
Sheer brilliance, a pop song that's gorgeous and full and catchy and with just the right amount of emotion, of longing and begging and melancholy and hope. Saying this so early and without radio bombardment to prove it really is of lasting appeal is always a little scary, but I think there's every chance this will go down as at least a personal pop classic. I've yet to come anywhere close to overplaying it, which is saying something, given how often I've played it.
Buy it here (digital) and please, please do--there's absolutely no guarantee of this song getting the success it deserves and I'm really worried about how well it'll do for her. The album is out in November of this year, apparently.
For someone whose previous out-of-the-U.S. experience had consisted of a few weeks in Costa Rica and a few trips to Canada (which barely counts, not because Canada's the same as the U.S. but because when I can get to it in about an hour--quicker than I can get to most other states besides Michigan--it's not exactly far away), the past half a year or so has been pretty amazing: four and a half months living in Sweden (cough--did I not mention that properly here?) and then following that up with random traveling around Europe itself, with the most time being spent in Germany, Croatia, and Slovenia. The post-Sweden stuff has been kind of shockingly music purchase-light, but the approximately 50 million CDs I bought in Sweden makes up for it. Toss in a quick jaunt to Orlando afterwards (it's where my older brother lives), and, along with the fact that in Europe I often wasn't sure where I would be in a few days, you've got the best I can offer as an explanation for disappearing for so long.
Anyway, as I mentioned below, I'm totally and completely out of the music loop--I haven't been able to follow anything that's been going on for more than the past month. What's fantastic? What's happening? All I know is that I'm freaking out and shouting "Oh my gosh, I love this song!" and turning up the volume every time Chris Brown's "Forever" comes on the radio and "We're so going to see this movie" every time the preview for the movie version of Mamma Mia comes on, though to be fair that's half just to drive everyone who doesn't want to see it crazy by reminding them that they will get dragged along. The best I can offer up at the moment is a perpetual pop classic which has absolutely nothing to do with anything but I adore and am going to take an excuse to post anyway (album available for purchase here [physical] or here [digital]).
Most importantly, though, I've missed everyone. Really. More cheesy amazing pop coming your way soon.
With full apologies for disappearing for a month (blame it on one set of travels--travels that I don't want to call once in a lifetime because I'm determined to go back, but travels that were definitely first in a lifetime for me--unexpectedly overlapping into another)...I'm back, back to a world where I'm hearing Mariah's "I'll Be Lovin' You Long Time" on the radio (and David Cook's Idol winner song?), where I can finally watch Burn Notice and Doctor Who and So You Think You Can Dance, where iTunes seems to have doubled its country list, and where I have absolutely no idea what's going on in the music scene, international or here in the U.S. Proper post coming later today.
For now, though, here's some big cheesy swooshy dance-pop from Sweden, the sort of song that would fit perfectly on a playlist with Uniting Nations' "You And Me" and Sunblock's "I'll Be Ready"--very '80's. In fact, the first time I heard a bit of the song, I figured it was one of those dance songs made up of just an '80's sample that are so popular now (with added element that always makes me think of Britney's "Crazy" cowbell, even though it doesn't actually sound like it, I know)...and there's still this sparkly electronic riff that reminds me so much of something, but I can't place. And how can you dislike a group that proclaims they "take us back to a trouble-free time when we listened to groups like Europe and Samantha Fox and watched movies like Dirty Dancing and Top Gun" (and uses scenes from Top Gun for the music video)?
Let's focus on the good boy band-ish news like the existence of the three-person group from above and pretend D'Nash never took that awkward, awkward picture, 'K?
On another note, though, someone very wise once posted the Valentin Radio Mix of Natasha Bedingfield's "The One That Got Away" (for which I am eternally grateful) with the comment that "Every summer needs a remix just like this"--I need a remix like that, with that feel for this summer as well, so let me know if anyone knows one!
You can buy the song I posted here (physical) or here (digital). It's also available on the Absolute Summer Dance 2008 album, which is what I know it from (edit: Nick just posted another highlight from that album [not that that's where he heard it, but since I was talking about listening to the album and this connected to that...]). This is also maybe a good time to mention a site I've been using but haven't wanted to recommend because I wasn't sure it would work for everyone, but so far it's still working for me, so I can only assume it really is region-free for the moment (though who knows how long it'll be before they catch that): a Swedish digital music site that you can actually buy from even if you're not living in Sweden (besides Klicktrack, which is great but very limited). The trouble is that most of the songs (though not all) come as protected WMAs, so if you want them for iTunes or your iPod, you'll have to burn them to CD and then rip them back (I recommend using a rewritable CD)--I know that's annoying, but if your a Swedish music addict like me, someone who's always desperate for new releases, it's heaven-sent. If anyone uses it and it doesn't work for them, though, please let me know--I'm planning on adding it to the blog's sidebar and I only do that for sites that don't let only residents of their country of origin use them.
(Hopefully I'll be able to catch up on communication in the next few days; if not, rest assured that'll definitely happen when I'm done traveling [blog catch-up will occur then too], and I'm sorry for taking so long!)
I'm going to be doing some traveling for the next two weeks. I'm expecting at least some of the places I'm visiting to have Internet access, so I don't expect it to be an entirely post-free two weeks, but posts may very well be more sporadic (though if I get some big chunks of time I'll write up some stuff and set it to automatically post).
I know I keep promising to write about Kalomoira and Kate Ryan, and I really will--hopefully the downtime that goes along with traveling will coerce me into doing that--but for now, here's a super-quick post with a song from Belgian singer Natalia, an Idol runner-up who's made herself far more than that in her home country. I've posted a few of her songs before, but none from her most recent album, so here's "Glamorous," a slightly funky, slightly urban, but mainly just pop-with-synths song (though don't let the title and the mention of synths make you expect something that sounds musically [ignoring the lyrics for a moment] like the Fergie song). Besides the horns, the song's effects sound sort of sound like the inner workings of a machine put into the service of a catchy mid-tempo pop song). It was the album's second single and released back in 2007.
To buy Natalia's third album, Everything & More, go here (physical) or here (digital).
Not too long ago I wrote about how the song "Brief And Beautiful" kept getting recycled, given to several artists who all recorded their own version of it. Here comes the next installment of an unplanned but apparently ongoing series...
Swedish Idol winner Agnes Carlsson was the first to record "Love Is All Around," which was written for her, putting it on her second album; the bubbly upbeat musical followup to songs like "Stranded" and "Emotional" (itself a part of the recycling circuit), it was never a single for her, but, since it was by far the best song on that album, it really should have been. The last commercial material Agnes released was this past Christmas's cover of "All I Want For Christmas Is You," but she also recently appeared on Körslaget.
(I wasn't going to upload the song--another case of it being introduced to me by another blog--but somehow Agnes's version isn't totally on YouTube, so here it is for comparison purposes.)
Japanese boy band Arashi recorded a version of the song, one of those odd mainly in Japanese but with some random lines in English in the chorus sorts of songs. Strangely, though, the English lines aren't actually taken from "Love Is All Around;" instead, the song has been renamed "We Can Make It" and features the line "we can make it through." They added in a rap as well, but the end result is still very bubblegum. Unlike Agnes, they did release it as a single (in spring 2007).
Australian Idol contestant Ricki-Lee Coulter recorded the song for her second solo album, released in August 2007, her first solo album released after leaving the Young Divas, and made it her second single from the album. She lacks Agnes's accent, but there's something about Agnes's voice that makes me prefer Agnes's version of it; the song "pops" more and sounds richer to me. Sorry Mike! Like Arashi, Ricki-Lee released her version as a single, in her case in November 2007.
As if we didn't have enough Idol contestants covering the song, though, South African Idol winner Jody Williams released her version of "Love Is All Around" as her winner's single in December 2007. I still give Agnes the easy edge here, but wouldn't it be refreshing to have an Idol winner single this bubbly and upbeat? Speaking of Jody, she's got a new single out called "Kiss Of Life," but, since I haven't heard more than twenty seconds of it, I can't exactly judge it.
(Since "Love Is All Around" was the winner's song, both Jody and the eventual runner-up Andriette performed it, with both of their versions being released for sale digitally, though it was Jody's version that got actually "released.")
What prompted this post? I was reading about the work Spanish singer Soraya Arnelas (though she wasn't on an Idol show, she was on Operación Triunfo) is doing on her new album--due out this October--and couldn't help noticing one of the titles of the songs she's done.
Yup, you guessed it. "Love Is All Around." Could be another song, but given the history of this song, I'm not going to count on it. It's a fantastic song, but this is really getting kind of ridiculous. Then again, maybe we shouldn't be too surprised: Soraya's past two albums have been all covers...but those were of a different sort--those were known covers, covers of '80's songs (Kylie's "I Should Be So Lucky," Laura Branigan's "Self Control," Patti Smith's "Because The Night," Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Want To Have Fun," Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy," the Human League's "Don't You Want Me," Yaz's "Don't Go," the Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)"...you get the idea), not a version of a song that modern day songwriters are selling artists in different regions the rights to. Don't get me wrong: I love Epicentre, the Swedish team behind the song; it's just that from the perspective of an international pop fan (which is admittedly much different from that of someone making a living via their job), I'd just much rather have new fantastic songs instead of many versions of the same fantastic song.
Further on the Soraya news front, the album is apparently super-danceable, has--in the first edition--ten songs in Spanish and two in English (titles including "Love Is All Around," "Rebound," "Duele," "Caminaré," "La noche es para mi," and "Sin miedo"), features three songs recorded with DJ Sammy, and she's given us the impression before that there's a duet with Kate Ryan on it, and not the one on Kate's new album. There'll be another version of the album, all in English, that comes out later, I think.
I know Soraya's not exactly the definition of classy, but I do hope this new album is...worthy. And makes good use of her voice and doesn't force it on songs it doesn't fit.
For more on Soraya, check out PopMusicWorldWide's opinionated post on her or Robpop's post on her.
Agnes's second album Stronger can be purchased here (physical).
Next up: maybe Kalomoira or Kate Ryan, finally. Or another Belgian singer.
I really was going to write about Kalomoira's new album today, but after all the cleaning and stuff I've been doing today (I know, cleaning, what a rough life), I just don't feel like actually making the decision of which song to post. Tomorrow, probably! Instead, I offer another Greek artist, one I know very little about, with a song I know even less about. In fact, I don't even know where it comes from (the perils of the various ways of translating--or what's the proper term for it, transliterating?--Greek words). Eirini Merkouri (or Irini Merkouri) has released multiple albums in Greece, with a new one apparently on the way, but I haven't been able to figure out what era or soundtrack or whatever today's song is from (I think it's recent-ish, as in within the past year or so, but I'm not even certain about that)--if anyone knows, I'd love to know!
Trexe--or "Trekse," or "Τρέξε." I'm not sure if anyone remembers Sakis's "Stous 31 Dromous," but the musical backing for this kind of reminds me of that, if faster--it's that same sort of electronic beat, like it could have been programmed on the same type of machine. There's piano added to those beats, though, which is an effect I can rarely pass up: a light squiggly upbeat dance beat accompanied by some repeated piano phrase (see also: my love for Anthony Callea's "Wanna Be The One"). Catchy, full, but not heavy, "Trexe" is pretty lovely--you could definitely dance to this, but you don't have to, and, though there's definitely a time for music that commands you to the dancefloor, it's nice to have this sort of dance that you can just allow to pleasantly wash over and through you.
As I said, I have no idea what this song is from, so the best I can do is say that you can buy Eirini Merkouri's most recent album, Argises, which does not contain "Trexe," here (physical) or here (digital).
Hmm...I don't know what to think of the new McFly single, "One For The Radio." I mean, I approve of backing vocals that sound like a group of people shouting in unison in theory, but if you're going to make a song that talks about how much people like your songs even if they won't admit it, shouldn't it be a fantastic song with a melody that inspires everyone to sing along even without relying on that fallback? And maybe instrumental parts that have you air-guitaring or -drumming along? The word "anthemic" was tossed around afterwards, but there were loads of songs on the last (non-greatest hits) album that sounded more anthemic than that one. I get that they're going for a sort of crunchier guitar sound now, but I wonder if this particular song might have worked better with slightly different production; a lighter feel suiting a lighter melody...well, I've only heard it once, and I missed the beginning as well, so I'll have to hear it begin before I really know. I should've recorded it--it's already fading from my mind, and 3/4 of a listen is far from enough to properly judge a song. Still, it'll be on Radio 1's site soon enough, in the archives for Switch with Nick Grimshaw. Right now, though, it seemed potentially fine or maybe OKish, but not exciting.
Your problems don't exist when music feels like this.
Songs are posted only for promotional purposes (I love them and want others to know about them, too)--if you like them, please "go out and buy the record"! If you are an artist, represent one, or are a songwriter/producer and would like your songs removed, I'll gladly do so (just let me know).
I'm pretty sure I remember reading that Swedish dance outfit's male-vocaled and UK-released 2005 single "I'll Be Ready" is based on a sample taken from the theme song to Baywatch, but even without knowing that, I think I'd think it sounded like summer. I guess I do have a pretty high tolerance for--or, maybe more accurately, when it's done really well, total love of that type of song that everyone seemed to try to cash in on after the success of Eric Prydz's "Call On Me": that big swooshy dance-pop sound based primarily around an '80's song. Still, resisting this big giant piece of upbeat cheese seems like a futile task that's not worth attempting to begin with--it's just so fun. I guess you could say it sounds like what I'd like my summers to feel like.
