Holding hands with him and sitting closer than six inches

I was tempted to just post a picture of Benji, caption it "America has a new favorite dancer," and make that today's post, but I decided against it--there's just too much to report on today (the fact that I couldn't find a picture of him perfect for what I was looking for has, of course, nothing to do with it).

Do you all remember Anthony Callea, the amazing Australian Idol contestant who has released one (very successful) album so far? There's news about his upcoming second album; you should note that it's not from an official source, but it's probably fairly reliable (though record labels can change their mind, so I wouldn't take anything as a given). All the details can be read here (the same site also gets credit for today's photo), but apparently it will be two CD's--one slower and ballady (for the "older" people) and one more fun and uptempo (for the "young" people--I didn't make that distinction--the record exec did!). My first reaction: brilliant. Not only do I get twice as many Anthony songs as I was expecting, I'm guaranteed that they won't all be ballads! Why don't all popstars do this?

And then it occurred to me: what other spiky-haired Idol runnerup who I love released a double CD set for his second album? Gareth Gates. Now, don't get me wrong--I love that album and I think Gareth did a lot better than most people think, but please don't let what happened to Gareth happen to Anthony. There are already enough great popstars whose futures are in question--this album better sell by the bucketload.

So that this is still sort of an mp3 blog, here's Anthony's cover of the Lionel Richie song "Angel." Before Anthony was on Idol, he posted some songs on his website; this was one. Keep that in mind--this wasn't a fully produced song (it was basically a demo), but I still quite like it.

Angel

I planned to post the Jonas Brothers' album track "7:05" today. I was even thinking I might say I kind of liked it and could see where Popjustice was going with its "Mmmbop" comparison; it's not as full of energy and exuberance and doesn't make you quite as happy to be alive as that song, but it does have a similar feel to it. That was the plan, anyway--but then the video for their "Year 3000" cover came on and I got all upset again (still illogically). The video is viewable here and it is to the Busted video pretty much what their version of the song is to the Busted version--borrowing certain elements (right down to the cheap animation) while still whitewashing and continuing to lack the energy and spunk of the original. Don't get me wrong; I'm not calling Busted's original video a masterpiece and it isn't so much the video that upsets me (their video might even be better than Busted's; I don't know) as it is being reminded of the cover's existence (which you can see my thoughts on here). I'm still looking for someone to talk me out of being irrationally upset (and I really mean that).

Oh well. Here's the song anyway.

7:05

Update: apparently, the Jonas Brothers have also covered LFO's "6 Minutes" on their album. I don't know the original, so I can't compare them. I'm not going to condemn them just for a cover (even though I tend to not like covers more than I like them, I don't automatically hate them--I just posted a Lionel Richie cover, after all), but I'm curious as to how the two versions compare, so I thought I'd post the Jonas Brothers version; hopefully, someone who knows the original can compare them.

6 Minutes

Unintentionally, today's post seems to have evolved into including a lot of covers. Clay Aiken has posted his cover of "Without You" on his MySpace. This song is going to be on the album, so I'm not sure if this is going to be the single or if he's just previewing the album. He can clearly sing, but...dare I say it? I'm a little underwhelmed, though it's not because of him; I just think I would have preferred a different song. This isn't even near CD-quality audio, which will probably surface at some point, and I sort of feel bad about posting this, so I may take it down at some point, but for now, here's Clay singing "Without You."

Without You

You can buy Anthony Callea's first album, Anthony Callea, here or on iTunes (but it doesn't have "Angel"); the Jonas Brothers' album, It's About Time, here (physical) or here (digital; only valid for US residents); and preorder Clay Aiken's second album, A Thousand Different Ways, here.

Thanks so much to POPtastic! for linking to me. How much do I love that site? An awful, awful lot...I'm honored to be in the links section.

Next up: I'm not sure--I only posted one of the songs I was planning to post today, so maybe I'll post the other one tomorrow, or maybe I'll do a couple of Spanish songs.

anthony callea jonas brothers clay aiken