Tuesday, March 11, 2008

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.

7 comments:

Myfizzypop said...

a piece of information more useful as trivia than as any guarantee of quality in my opinion...

this is the most amazing piece of writing that made me laugh. I used it in a sentence to describe one of our staffs capability in a management meeting today, I didn't quite get in the "don't fuck with my creativity" that i wanted to use from Robpops site!!

Oh and back to trashlee - no, it certainly wouldn't be a problem me thinking it was not cool to like her. That usually makes me like people more! you know me so well!

Anonymous said...

I really love her song 'Im Sorry' i brought it off I-Tunes this morning and have had it on repeat.
She reminds of Delta Goodrem quite a lot.

Poster Girl said...

I'm glad you liked that, Paul :D Bonus points if you get to quote Robpop today!

I thought about getting that one--I keep going back and forth on whether to get a physical copy of the album (my usual preference) or buy it from iTunes (for the bonus track). I could see that comparison, I think--though I'm not much of a Delta expert!

Jaker said...

If Sibel's album is anything Delta-esque at all, then I'm sold.

Also, what's with the Kara DioGuardi hatin', huh? She's not just trivia. She is a shining light in the pop/rock musical subgenre! She has given the world almost as many inconsequential pop songs as Diane Warren, and I don't usually find myself wanting to pull my eardrums out with a fork when I listen to her stuff the way I do when I listen to a DW song.

Hee!

Though, all joking aside, if we're talking DioGuardi, I really must suggest everyone who hasn't already head over to youtube and give a listen to her (original) version of Celine's Taking Chances from the Platinum Weird era. In my (never) humble opinion, it's so much better than La Dion's.

Poster Girl said...

Jaker, I probably should have specified: I don't have anything against Kara--she's been involved in some GREAT songs--it's just that she's been so prolific that you'll see her name crop up on SO many different releases, not all of them as worthy as others. I'm not anti-Kara, but seeing Kara's name in the writing credits doesn't guarantee I'll like a song either.

I remember the whole Platinum Weird project, and that song--I never really checked out much from it, though!

Jaker said...

I was totally kidding. I know there was no *actual* hatin' going on.

"it's just that she's been so prolific that you'll see her name crop up on SO many different releases, not all of them as worthy as others"

Well, I suppose that can happen when you've co-written 47 million songs or whatever she's up to now.

As for PW, I'll do a post at some point when I'm out of ESCville, but some of it wasn't bad. It's not an absolute-must-listen, but it's solid stuff. I mean, it's Dave Stewart, so it can't be all bad.

Amanda Rubensson said...

Hi! I´m kind of Sibel's friend :) I´ve mailed with her for a while and sheees sooo fuc*ing wonderful that you even cant imagine! Shes always cares about her fans,friends, all who cares about her! And her voice is so fuckin' good. If you wanna hear a song that you even wont believe, search on youtube.com "Sibel Redzep Nothing else matters" , when she sing that she only was 17 years old. Unbelieveble! Just wanna say that, AND, Sibel cares alot about you if she only´d now you´ve buying her CD :) 'Cus she love fans out of sweden =)
Have a nice day, and listen listen listen!
her webpage if you wanna write to her : www.sibel.se
get a member! and if you wanna write to her go in on Fanzoone then Gästbok :)
have a nice day