I'm currently a little obsessed with the following song--no, scratch that; I'm very obsessed. As I find myself doing so often, I have to gratefully credit another blog--here,
Don't Stop The Pop--for introducing me to the artist I'm writing about--this time, Anna David. Her adorable single "Impossible" was
posted over there during the Danish Pop special and I loved it on the first listen (I completely adore "Impossible" and
strongly recommend getting it if you haven't already), but was disappointed to hear that she'd since gone off to pursue a different style (less poppy, more...R&b-y, maybe?) since then (as well as switching over to Danish from English); her megahit "Fuck Dig" was never something I really felt compelled to listen to. The lead single for her second album likewise passed me by without me paying attention to it or being interested to really hear it. Her second single for this album, though, has completely enchanted me.
Chill--don't be fooled by the title--this song is in Danish. It's absolutely one of those songs that manages to make the language barrier not matter at all, though. "Chill" has to be one of the happiest, most feel-good songs I've heard this year; every time I listen to it, I feel a desire to sway back and forth while singing it. Preferably while sitting outside on a sunny day. The first time I heard it, my first thought--well, no, my first thought was "I love this!", but my second thought was the paranoid "Is this a cover?" (a worry that sneaks up on me often now--as I said, I'm paranoid), but, though I have no idea if it is or not (though given the writing credits for her first album, I'd guess not), I've given up caring, because I'm having too much fun listening to this light breezy track which has a little bit of a retro feel. Complete with "ooo"s and "yeah"s and "woah"s and giggles, tambourine, and cute little shiny electronic noises (I'm a sucker for these--I've got to figure out a better name for them), the song moves along at mid-tempo (though the verse has a nice rapidfire delivery to its words) and has a chorus that is pure poppy joy--stick it out at least to that and then I defy you not to be taken with it.
Since this is a new(ish--well, not really, but it's still charting) single, it'll only be posted for a few days.
To buy Anna David's second album
2, go
here (physical) or
here (digital). If you'd told me a year ago I'd be very very tempted to buy an Anna David album (that wasn't a reversion to her original sound), I'd have been shocked, but I am--from previews, it sounds like at least several other songs on the album are really good.
Next up: maybe something else from Denmark.
This song only isn't higher because the first fifteen seconds are a little too abrasively happy and kitschy even for me. Luckily, those same elements get incorporated in a much better way into the song later on and the "ooo-ooo-ooo-ooo"s become just another element of the pure pop joy that is "Chill." Danish singer Anna David had a very pop-oriented earlier career, but it was the less-than-fantastic "Fuck dig" that was her breakout hit. Luckily, for this, the second single from her second album, she returned to her pop roots and gave us one of the year's most infectiously upbeat choruses, all sparkles and giddiness and poppoppoppopPOP! This kind and level of happiness could be too much for some people or for certain moods, but this swingy (not swing!) mid-tempo pop song is one of the most pleasant surprises from Denmark this year and definitely one of the year's poppiest songs.
