Baby, this is your moment here in the spotlight

I'll freely admit that Latvian singer DJ Ella's new album isn't going to be for everyone--it's for those of us who love random European starlets singing over dance beats and who eat songs like that up, really (though there are some less dance moments)--but if that's your style, there are several songs worth hearing. Ella's record company has been really making a push to make her big (in Latvia), and to that end they've got some international songwriters' songs for the album, but it wouldn't surprise me to learn that (as is the case for at least several songs, one of which is more of a pure "cover" than a matter of recycled songs like the others) some of the songs I don't recognize have been or will be passed around to other artists as well (but DJ Ella's version was a big improvement on the original, so I'm more than fine with it at least in that case). I've posted the title track and lead single, "Welcome To The Club," and "DJ Take Me" (which really is great), the second single, before, so here's another track worth listening to from the album.

(Side note: Eurovision national fans may know Ella from when she sang the Thomas G:son-co-penned "Heaven In Your Eyes" in Latvia's 2006 national final.)

Shine Like A Superstar--I think this is the latest single, though apparently "Kitchy Kitchy" was a single at some point and I've got no idea how it fits into the singles run. It's a big dance-friendly song with a kind of R&B-ish verse before switching into a big uplifting pop-dance chorus, a hands-in-the-air sort of thing which is so short that it really needs to be done twice in a row (as it eventually is) to have proper impact. The middle 8 is randomly one of those attitude-filled talky bits you often get in electro-pop that doesn't really sound like Ella at all, but there's no "featuring" listed for this track (then again, some of her vocals on "DJ Take Me" sounded completely different from what I thought we knew Ella's voice to be). The whole song kind of feels too short, but you can always go back and play it again, and I like the chorus enough that I'm willing to do that. Gosh, my descriptions are getting really incoherent nowadays, aren't they? That's sort of fitting for this song, though, which doesn't seem sure what it really wants to be or do--it's kind of bonkers in a "did they just take the verse, chorus, and middle 8 from three separate songs?" way, but that sort of endears it to me even more. To be honest, though, any song with this kind of chorus, this big silly upbeat dance-and-forget-your-troubles kind of sound, is probably going to win me over, regardless of what it spends the rest of its time doing.

To buy DJ Ella's album Welcome To The Club, go here (digital); if you really want a physical copy, you might eventually be able to buy it from here. I'm not sure that I'd recommend the whole album, though...then again, I do love all three of her singles (ignoring "Kitchy Kitchy") and at least two or three other tracks on the album. "Welcome To The Club" and "DJ Take Me" are also available on iTunes.

Next up: maybe something French.