Take you away from here

I've fallen into a bad habit recently of starting these long, involved posts and then never finishing them, leaving them lost in the cobweb filled word of "Drafts" for who knows how long, and then rushing out a quick one or two sentence description of each song I'm loving at the moment (though strangely my last rambly long post got finished in one sitting). It's certainly not for lack of good music to write about--it's more a matter of songs that I love so much that I really want to do them justice or multi-part issues or explorations of subjects that cry out for a little more effort and my seeming ADDish inability to finish them.

I'll try to hit that middle ground sweet spot more often, though, because I need an outlet to talk about how much I'm enjoying Martin Stenmarck's new album, how excited I am about the new Adam Lambert album (I have apparently listened to each of the 30 second clips--well, except "Time For Miracles"--fourteen times on my iPod alone), how lovely the Sugababes' "Wait For You" is, how much bounce Anna Abreu's "Music Everywhere" puts in my step, or how hard I fell for Blake Lewis's "Left My Baby For You" (I've said before how much I love "Heartbreak On Vinyl," and that still holds true as well).

In the meantime, there are a couple of projects based around the end of the decade that are worth your reading time: Chart Rigger's 40 best pop songs of the '00s and XO's year-by-year review of the '00s. It's really easy to get caught up in the excitement of now and songs that you instantly love are a hugely important part of pop; having spent all Friday a week ago with that adrenaline rush you get from loving, really loving a new song, I'm certainly not going to knock the appeal of the here-and-now. A bit of distance, though, can sometimes make for a better, more insightful read and can take you back to some pretty special songs (and memories, even if the songs no longer hold the power for you now that they did then).

I want you to bring back...the keys, the chords, the beats, the words

Back to young Finnish singer Anna Abreu (original post here) today, and credit to FMSM for the songs. Even if Anna's self-titled debut album is not the most consistent thing you'll ever hear, the bright spots are pretty bright, made even more so by the potential they hint at--Anna could pursue a style different from most (or any) other former Idol contestants. Some ex-contestants just don't sound like any other contestant in terms of chosen style and maybe it's because I think Anna could be one of these that I tend to skip past most of her "club banger" style tracks, even though they in and of themselves aren't terrible, but I think it's more that I just don't totally buy them coming from her. Maybe it's a case of me trying to pigeonhole her into what I want her to sound like, but I think she'd be better off ditching both the "Are You Ready"/"Bad Girl" clubby attitude-filled tracks and the "ooo, look, she's part Portuguese, let's use that as a selling point!" Portuguese language tracks (not that I have any problem with someone wanting to be true to their heritage if that truly is what's happening, but "Solta-Se O Bejo" just feels so generic "Latin sounding track" that I'm sure there are better ways to do so). Or at least getting some better ones. "Stressed Out" and "Unsatisfiable" seem like better fits to me, but I'd still say the two best songs on the album are lead single "End Of Love" and "Ivory Tower."

Ivory Tower--I'm posting this one first just because I'm guessing people heard "End Of Love" when I posted it earlier, but if you haven't, skip to that and listen to it first, since it really is..."statement of intent" isn't the right expression since I wouldn't say it closely reflects the rest of the album, but I'd like to say in the future, when I look back at the beginning of her career, "yup, you could really see how great she was going to be based on that first single." As for "Ivory Tower," it's a mid-tempo song with a strong backing beat, finger snaps, and a catchy melody coupled with lyrics that plead but, when coupled with that strong beat, can't help but have an interesting combination of desperation and strength. Maybe appropriately for a song with a title like this and that occasionally drops in a magic metaphor or two, there's a hint of mystery to it as well. Most importantly to me, though, it's just catchy in a good distinctive way and has lyrics that sound good in the song; regardless of what they mean, they give the song the right "aura." And yes, Anna does randomly switch to Portuguese for a bit.

End Of Love--I'm a bit fascinated by this song because it's just so unusual-sounding, especially when you consider that it's the debut single from a mainstream Idol contestant. From that cabaret-type opening to the piano that runs throughout the song to its strange structure (wait, are we in the chorus now?) and strange rhythms to the what-are-they-talking-about lyrics, it's sort of an experiment of a song, but it's an experiment that works. Gotta love the sort of ghostly female backing vocals, too.

I just noticed today that I had this store and this store recommended to me in the comments for buying Finnish records (thanks so much!); I haven't had the opportunity to check them yet, but they look good and both are selling Anna Abreu's album Anna Abreu.

Next up: maybe that American group.

You could have it, all the beauty, the power

Finland's gone crazy for Ari Koivunen this year. From the moment he sang "Piano Man" in the semifinals for Idols, it was pretty obvious who was going to win that season; anyone who can motivate enough people to run out and download Billy Joel's version of "Piano Man" to make it rise to the top of the download charts just through performing his own version on Idol has clearly created a pretty substantial fanbase for himself. With his debut album Fuel For The Fire still sitting atop Finland's album chart, Ari's become inescapable. Music-wise, though, it's runner-up Anna Abreu that I'm more interested in; while some of Ari's hard rock stylings may not be entirely lacking in pop sensibilities, it's young Anna's material that so far strikes me as the better (for my taste) and interesting of the two. There's still definitely a possibility that she'll go down a road I have little interest in because she's playing with some genres that I can be leery of, but so far it's all led to good music.

End Of Love--I'm really sorry, but this is only a low quality version of the song. Finland drives me crazy music purchasing wise; it's one of those countries that not only do I not know anywhere to buy digital downloads from, I don't know any stores selling actual physical Finnish CDs. The way things are going, though, I'm going to have to find somewhere to buy Anna's CD when it comes out, not only for the music but because I need to know who wrote this song (and the others, I expect; I think it was written by a member of Finnish group the Crash, but I'm not sure). Anna is part Portuguese, so there have been implications that she'll be playing to a Latin part of her heritage in music and she's also expressed an interest in R&B music. When I heard "pop fused with R&B and Latin music," I didn't get particularly excited--that's not exactly at the top of my list of desired musical combinations--but apparently I should have. "End Of Love" must be one of the most unusual mainstream pop offerings from an Idol contestant immediately after the contest. Don't let that sort of cabaret-esque jazzy opening throw you--keep listening and you'll still hear unusual playing with rhythm and effects, but all in the service of interesting and great pop music. In fact, it's the sort of song I'm having difficulty describing, but trust me, take a listen. It's rare that anyone, let alone an Idol contestant, releases a song like this, especially one that manages to have such a solid pop appeal that it wins even me over. Though they don't actually sound similar, I still feel the need to say this: I have no patience for Katharine McPhee's "Love Story" (though I loved "Over It"), but throwback-sounding music can be done and done well, as "End Of Love" shows.

Ivory Tower (Clip)--this is only a snippet of a song, but since Anna is rotating songs on and off her MySpace on a weekly basis, I'm posting this here so that people can hear it after August 1. While "End Of Love" may have somewhat of a hidden chorus, one that sneaks up on you, "Ivory Tower"'s chorus is very obvious and very good; I can see myself having quite the hot and heavy love affair with it for a few days. The meaning of lyrics doesn't really matter to me in most cases, but how they sound--the meaning it sounds like they have, how they fit with the rhythm--does, and this song shows exactly what I mean by that (as does "End Of Love"). I cannot wait for her album (due out August 22, I think), even if only to get my hands on the full version of this song.

As I said, I don't know any Finnish music stores; if anyone else does, please let me know! Since I can't link you to those, I'll point you in the direction of Anna Abreu's MySpace instead.

Next up: maybe that Icelandic singer.