I don't know that much about C-Stones. I do know they are from Latvia and, for reasons I will probably never understand, all the iTunes stores, even the U.S. one, seem to carry their music (while they remove the albums of Will Young and Alcazar--not that I'm really complaining, mind, because I at least know where to buy those albums at a decent price). I think the group used to be named or used to be in a group named Sea Stones, which is presumably where their name comes from, not that that explains anything. I've seen them referred to as the Latvian A*Teens, but that raises expectations too much--they generally don't have the great songs the A*Teens had--and should probably just be seen as code for "boy-girl Europop-influenced group." Still, that doesn't stop them from having the occasional good song (which a lot of people will strongly dislike). They started out as a four-piece, two boys and two girls, but sometime in the lead-up to the second album, they lost one of the boys. The group as a whole has since disbanded...but not before leaving us with a performance (back from when they had four members) that I may have become mildly obsessed with recently.All You Know--C-Stones' entry in Latvia's 2004 national final for Eurovision. I know this performance isn't the greatest thing ever, but I can't help but fight back laughter every time I see it--I love it. Not only does it sport flips (not backflips, but still, flips!), it's got a chorus dance routine that I just adore, especially when they get to the kicking part (which helpfully occurs during the arguably best part of the song). I don't care about the vocals; that dance alone should've won the contest for them. Maybe it was the styling that did them in... As for the song, you could say it's repetitive, that's it's not particularly sophisticated, and that's it's very cheesy pop, and I probably couldn't argue with that--but I still like it.
To buy C-Stones' second album, Friday Night Forever, you could pay an excessive price and get a physical copy from Amazon here or instead purchase it from iTunes; for example, if you live in the U.S., go here.
Next up: I'm not sure...possibly someone from Iceland, but maybe I'll finally get back to Jonatan Cerrada.
14 comments:
hmmm, interesting choice. certainly not as marv as the a-teens but a peppy enough song and i like it enough to want to check out the album. Plus they look like they are having fun as they chart the rocky waters of the world of pop! Which is important to me - i hate it when acts have great pop songs but look like they are so above singing it!
Very pop! I like it. C-Stone sounds like a drug.
I think i'm addicted! This has little bits of schlager.
For some reason, people always blame iTunes whenever something is added or removed.
iTunes does not have a say whatsoever. If an album and/or single gets removed, that is not iTunes' fault but the record company's.
Record companies outside the US realize it's a way to make easy money and, smartly, choose to release their music on all of the iTunes stores, especially indie labels.
No, no A*Teens, but then, who are? :)
I'm glad you like it! And that's a better explanation than anything I've come up with.
No, I know that's part of it--I mean, the reason I can buy music by Sanna, Nanne, Shirley, and Sonja on U.S. iTunes is because Lionheart makes a conscious effort to make their music available digitally around the world, and it always frustrates me when I see those petitions like "Get iTunes to add 'Hips Don't Lie'!" because I know the reason it's not there is due to the record company, not iTunes. Still, there are some cases that seem strange to me--for example, there used to be multiple Westlife albums for sale on U.S. iTunes (all by the same record company), but now, there's only one. It's possible that the record company decided it only wanted their first album to be available to U.S. buyers, but that seems like a strange/unlikely decision to make...maybe they did, though!
I had to go to iTunes and check! Westlife signed a record deal with Arista for the American market. Arista release their debut album in the US. That is the album available on iTunes (the American artwork is different to the international one).
After Arista dropped them, they signed with RCA US. It was a very expensive deal at the time... and nothing happened. A first single was promoted, "World Of Our Own". For some moronic reason, RCA thought it needed remixing for its American release, so they did. The US version sucks in comparison to the original. Westlife also shot a music video for the song. After the song flopped, the whole project was canceled.
Why S Records / RCA UK pulled the albums from iTunes US... I don't know. But you know record companies... like Meja once said, it's all about the money.
It should be noted that both Will Young and Westlife are on S Records (Simon Cowell's vanity label) / RCA UK. Coincidence? I think not... ;)
Just wondering; have you listened to any of their other songs? I noticed they have two albums, and I was wondering if one was better than the other, or someting like that.
Oh, that makes sense! Thanks for the investigation, Kevin :)
I have! That's actually a harder question to answer than I would have expected. It's a shame there's no album combining the best of the two, as that would make for a much better album. Friday Night Forever (the second album) is probably more consistent and generally falls into a sort of dancefloor groove (not that you would really here these songs on a dancefloor); I think my main complaint would be that sometimes the songs can start to blur together and sometimes the individual songs feel like they needed one more idea to give them enough energy to make it to the end. Makin' My Way, the first album, is less consistent, but the good songs on it seem to "pop" more. It also has a few songs that are a little more R&B-influenced (definitely not R&B, but just slightly influenced by it in a really cheesy way) and some "what were they thinking?" lyrical moments, so I guess it depends somewhat on what you're looking for. I'd probably tentatively recommend Friday Night Forever more, but if you pick up a couple of the best songs off Makin' My Way (say, maybe "It Feels So Right" and "Makin' My Way" or "Say You Want Me" depending on your preference--"Makin' My Way" is sort of happy, uplifting, and poppy and "Say You Want Me" is one of those faux-R&B influenced songs), they'll...spice up your listening experience, I guess.
Kevin, re: Westlife's albums getting pulled from iTunes... why look a gift horse in the mouth, doll?
PG, I finally checked out C-Stones today... Love the song you recommended here, and went to iTunes to check out some others! They sorta remind me of Ace of Base on their last album, Da Capo.
Ha ha. Robbie, I don't really care about Westlife. It was PG who brought the Westlife issue up... :) Stop lusting after B.Flo and read carefully... :)
:P I dumped B. Flo, sadly. I'm now on the market for a new swarthy pop star....
Oh, good, J'ason, I'm glad you liked the song! How shameful would it be if I said I actually hadn't heard that album? I know, I've got a lot to catch up on...
(And P.S., re: your last comment, if you find any place with lots of them, let me know!)
wow- thanks so much! I'm definetely going to get those songs, and the second cd. This song is just amazing and thanks for sharing it!
Robbie... What do you mean you are looking? Have you not met the swarthiest pop star of them, Mr Måns Zelmerlöw?!?!
DAYUM!
I'm thrilled you like it! :)
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