The same old love song is playing tonight

Before getting into the actual post for today, I wanted to say that Blogger has decided it doesn't like me; I can't leave comments on any blog that requires word verification, and as a result I can't say on Poplicious that I like the Crash song (though that's not surprising, considering that I like Busted and "Wannabe" reminds me a little of a watered-down and more inspirational Busted song, and I mean that as no insult...though probably it's more like other punk-pop groups than them...actually, musically the line "and I wanna be someone today" [or is it "tonight"?] reminds me of some other song, but I can't place it at the moment) or ask Kev where I can buy the Bad Boys Inc album (I've found lots of places to buy the singles, but nowhere to get the album, short of moving to Japan).

I'm wrapping up the boy band-esque ballads today, partly for the reason I interrupted it yesterday but also because the last song I had planned, which is by an American group, is so slushy that I'm not sure about it. I owe Digital Technique a huge debt--I'd only heard one song by today's singer, and it was a cover, so, though I was intrigued, I wasn't sure if I should buy the album; he posted some songs to his site, and I was convinced--I bought it. It is with huge thanks (and only because the songs were on an older version of his site that no longer exists) that I feature today's singer, Ola Svensson, or just Ola. He was on the second season of Idol in Sweden, the season that gave us Agnes, Sebastian, and Måns Zelmerlöw, and was apparently all set to be a footballer (soccer player) before appearing in a school musical convinced him to try out for Idol and pursue a musical career (it's like the Swedish version of High School Musical!). Ola's first single was a cover of Anthony Callea's song "Rain" (Anthony's version is better), which topped the Swedish charts, and followup single "Brothers" reached #4. Why "Brothers" was chosen as the followup single confuses me, as I don't see it as one of the albums stand-out tracks; if they had to go with another ballad, there are others I would choose, but that might just be because I find others--including today's song--catchier and less mopey.

Invincible--I looked at the producing and writing credits for this song a few days ago, convinced that someone famous must be behind it (even if they were slumming it just a little bit), but none of the names jumped out at me (then again, my knowledge of songwriters and producers is very minimal). In fitting with the theme, "Invincible" is a ballad, but it does have a bit of energy or bounce in it (not to the degree that, say, Shayne Ward's version of "No Promises" does, though). From the very first few seconds, this song has you hooked, and it never lets go. "Invincible" is another song of the sort that makes me imagine the heyday of boy bands; I think it would've fit in really well during that time, and respectably so.

To buy Ola's debut album Given To Fly, go here (physical); contrary to what one might think based on the singles so far, it doesn't just contain ballads--"Given To Fly" is a fun uplifting song and "My Home" is pretty good, too (and though I'm not sure whether or not it's good, "Cops Come Knocking" never fails to make me laugh--"til the 5-0--smash in the door--we are staying on the dancefloor!" [full lyrics here] How can you not want to hear it?).

By the way, Anders Johansson, just because I said I didn't mind the covers you've done does not give you license to release a toned-down cover of Heart's "Alone" as your next single. I also found out he did backing vocals for Westlife's "Amazing" (a song I really like--I do!), which surprised me a little--I guess I didn't realize a group of four guys would bring in other guys to do backing vocals as opposed to just singing it all themselves.

Speaking of Sweden and covers, I still find it strange that Martin Stenmarck's latest (though not exactly recent) single is a Swedish language version of a song he's already released as a single, "Losing Game." If he was going to cover one of his first album songs, I'd have had him do "I'm Falling" (previously a single) "Stop" (never a single), or maybe "The Cure For You" (previously a single). Still, I don't think it did too well the first time around, so, though as I've said before I'm not too enthused about most of what I've heard of his recent output (though the Bassflow remix of "7milakliv" is glorious--seek it out if you haven't heard it yet, though if you listen to Swedish radio you're probably sick of it), I hope he does well with it this time.

Next up: Melodifestivalen's second chance round takes place tomorrow, so odds are I'll be watching and writing about that.