My fever is only getting stronger

Grrr...I'm pretty frustrated at the moment, seeing as my favorite music purchasing site has decided it's no longer going to accept U.S. credit cards. I'm going through withdrawals already. It's put me in a somewhat of a mood, to be honest, so the following post will be about Velvet. Yes, I know she's very well-known already, and I'll try to do someone more obscure tomorrow, but something easy, fun, and upbeat is really what appeals to me the most right now.

(You know what the easy solution would be? Just move somewhere in Europe. Anywhere, really, but probably Sweden. Sigh.)

Velvet, by way of a quick background, is a Swedish singer, actually named Jenny Pettersson. Like lots of other great Swedish artists, she's competed in Melodifestivalen before. She's on her fourth single at the moment, and I presume it must be the lead single for a new album; she's released one album so far, and it peaked at #46, despite having some great dance-pop songs on it (then again, all her singles have gone top 10).

Fix Me--Velvet's most recent single (possibly her best--the only other real competition would be "Mi Amore"), and a really great dance-pop song. If you know "Mi Amore," her Melodifestivalen song, it's more dance than that, though that makes sense; dance music doesn't seem to do too well in Melodifestivalen (poor Therese and the Attic). There's no need to analyze this song--just listen to it and smile. Maybe dance. And enjoy it.

Fix Me (DiscoDisco Version)--just for kicks, here's a remix of it. Eight minutes long, heavier beats, but good if you're into club music. To be honest, the original is so good that I rarely listen to this, but if you want to put on a nice long song while you're doing something else, this is a good choice.

To buy Velvet's single "Fix Me," go here (physical).

Edit: oops--I forgot to mention a couple of things.

Jim Verraros has two new songs on his MySpace. "Dirty Criminal," which isn't new, was one of my favorite guitarry (ish)-pop songs for a while, so it's definitely worth a listen if you haven't heard it yet (actually, it's not really that guitarry at all, but I always think of it as being so, maybe just in contrast to some of his other work.)

Last night, at a live performance, Magnus Carlsson debuted a new song from his upcoming album, "Waves Of Love." I'm not sure if it's the new single--they might just have been testing it. Magnus said the album is supposed to come out before summer and should be a mix of or be in between Alcazar and Barbados (he's working with the people that produced Alcazar's albums, apparently), with '70's and '80's influence. If you can read Swedish, check out his official site and an article in QX for details.

Next up: maybe that Mexican song. Or something French. Or South African.