I want to be loved, in love--that's enough, that's enough for me

My frustration with record companies continues: is there any reason Sibel's (twenty year old Swedish singer who was in Idol a few years ago but it just now launching her commercial career via Melodifestivalen) new album The Diving Belle should be licensed out to be available on some European countries' iTunes stores (including the UK) but not in the U.S.? The whole phased release argument certainly doesn't stand here--the odds of Sibel promoting her album is the U.S. must be virtually nonexistant, and certainly much worse than the odds of her promoting in, say, Norway. For that matter (and I'm sure it's just a licensing thing based on past agreements, but I still don't get it), why does, say, Greece get it but not, for example, Austria?

Anyway, I'm not sure if I'll end up buying the whole album or not, but for now I did get two tracks, "Make Believe" and "Walking Away." "Walking Away" (co-written by Kara DioGuardi, a piece of information more useful as trivia than as any guarantee of quality in my opinion) has some fantastic verses (with great use of strings!) and a good cute chorus that probably isn't "big" enough to scream world hit or anything, but the poppy-but-fleshed-out mid/up-tempo song is definitely a very enjoyable listen (there's a clip here; you'll get a taste of one of the verses near the end). The song I'm posting today, though, is the other one I picked up.

Make Believe--the first time I heard the preview of this song on iTunes, I thought it sounded great. I then listened to the full thing over on Sibel's MySpace and felt underwhelmed--it seemed a lot less good than the preview had made out. Still, I ended up returning to it several times, and now I think it's really won me over. The strong chorus that hooked me in from the preview is still great, but my appreciation for the more toned-down piano-based verses is growing. Speaking of the chorus, I think it's a good example of something I've mentioned a few times recently: what tends to really matter to me in terms of lyrics isn't necessarily what they actually mean but how they sound, and there's something about the whole miracle/lyrical thing I love the sound of (though I could see it being too much for some people). "Make Believe" is a very pretty pop song (kind of a mix between the very produced sound of much teen-pop [as well as having a lyrical sentiment that wouldn't be out of place in that genre at all] as well as more diva-does-adult contemporary/MOR and singer-singwriter sounds...maybe with a bit of Disney), but one that doesn't sacrifice its catchiness to be pretty.

To buy Sibel's debut album The Diving Belle, go here (physical; the physical copy comes out tomorrow) or, if your country's iTunes store has it, you'll be able to buy it here (there is an iTunes bonus track, which sounds pretty great). This song will only be posted for a short time, since I think it may be the next single and/or released for charity.

Next up: maybe something French.