Like beautiful robots dancing alone

Counting down the hours until 3 PM EST...

(and hoping it will be brilliant)

Turning fighters into lovers

(Elements of this post have been sitting as a draft for quite some time, so not all of these links are to incredibly recent posts; that just means that they've stood the test of time, though.)

A few songs I was introduced by blogworld that I think are worth your time:

Poptastic posted "Watch This Space," a song from (the Paul-promoted British High-School-Musical-as-TV-series) Britannia High (watch the scene from the show below). It's a great pure pop song with a dance beat underneath the chorus.



PopJustice featured a clip of a song from Alesha's new album, "Let's Get Excited." It's more up-tempo than most of the sampler. Have I said on here that "Colours Of The Rainbow," the track her website is giving away, is enjoyable, too? It is.

#1 Hits From Another Planet wrote about Norwegian project Karatkorn's "The Distance In A Romance," which is lush dance/electro-pop--absolutely gorgeous. Kind of Kylie-esque, but that beautiful spacey side of Kylie, not the full-on disco rush, though it's not a slow song.

MuuMuse introduced me to the latest music from Blake Lewis--he features on a Darude cover of "I Ran" by Flock of Seagulls. Take it for what it is, an opportunity to hear Blake's vocals on something--don't go in expecting something like his debut album.

Fizzy Pop raved about the debut single from British duo Same Difference (and put it in proper pop history context), and with good reason--"We R One" is pure "pure pop" heaven, key change and all. A must-listen, definitely.

Don't Stop The Pop introduced me to Swedish singer Neo, whose song "Flower Power Supergirl"--poppy, uptempo, camp, catchy (not enough men making music like this)--is one I'm eagerly looking forward to being able to buy--album out this week! The same post also included a mention of Rosanna and her excellent song "Gameboy," with a promise to write more about it in the future.

On the non-introducing songs but still excellent front...

Adem wrote a fantastic review of Girls Aloud's "Out Of Control." I'll probably never get around to properly writing up my thoughts on even one of the songs off of it, but "The Loving Kind" and "Miss You Bow Wow" are my favorites at the moment.

Fabtastic Music made me wish Charlotte Perrelli would get to do a tour like a big US or UK act would.

Olga Loves Yuri took us on a tour of Norway with Annie.

XO's Middle Eight gives us more information about Take That's upcoming album, one which I'm very excited for (and I still love the video, cheese and all).

I adore D'luv's personal post about Pet Shop Boys.

Pop Music Notes is such a welcome part of the pop blog scene--you'll read about artists there that aren't really being covered elsewhere (as well as some who are). John's also being making me really jealous by writing about all the concerts he's been to recently.

Gosh, you start on this and you just keep thinking of a million things you want to link to...best to continue later, though, or else no one will bother with any of this.

You like my hair brunette, but I like it blonde

Clips! Girls Aloud! New album!



(Alternatively, stream the clips individually here.)

Obviously judging the album based on these is premature, but I am intrigued by the fact that the kind of electronic sound of "It's Magic" seems to pop up in slightly altered ways a few times. Also, "The Loving Kind" is sounding no less brilliant.

Once you've tasted love, can never have enough

Random songs to listen to elsewhere:

The clip of Girls Aloud's "The Loving Kind," taken from their upcoming album Out Of Control. BRILLIANT, from the sounds of it. The best kind of melancholy in the world.

"Encore" by Danish singer Heidi, off of X Factor--listen here, but that link will open Windows Media Player. The song isn't quite as over-the-top-excellent as I was hoping it would be from the clip I'd heard, but it's an interesting half-dark synth-washed pop song, with the chorus probably being the stand-out part. It would be nice to be able to buy it from somewhere, though.

It's like I've been asleep

Gosh, you lose power for a little while and the Internet explodes with new news. Among thing things that have happened (with no commentary for the moment) or that I just found out about, even if they happened earlier:

• Britney Spears will be releasing her new album, Circus, at the beginning of December, with the single "Womanizer" going out to radios September 22. Songs by Bloodshy & Avant, Max Martin, Dr Luke, Guy Sigsworth, and Danja.
  
• Girls Aloud's new single "The Promise" debuted on UK radio.
• Soraya's semi-danceable new single "Para ti" debuted on Spanish radio.
• Akcent's new single "Stay With Me" is out and about.
• Nick Lachey performed a new song, "All In My Head" on that High School Musical: Get In The Picture show he's hosting. It's not a ballad. Well, not really. If fan sites can be believed, it'll come out as a single, with an album, Coming Up For Air, following in January (YouTube says November). (There's also a clip of "All In My Head" from when it appeared on PromoSquad, but that's from a while ago, I think, so I'm not sure if it's still all the same.)
  
  
• The Killers' new Stuart Price-produced album is called Day & Age, comes out November 24, and is preceded by the synth-including single "Human."

(News taken from Popjustice and PubliSpain.)

The way that we talk, the way that we walk

Hi all! We lost power here yesterday (extreme winds) and it's still gone; at the time it happened, they told us it would take about 48 hours to get it back. Until it's back, I won't really be able to post anything or be online at all (I snuck over to the library to write this up); actually, more than anything I was bothered because we lost it (including Internet connection) literally RIGHT BEFORE the new Girls Aloud single was to debut (but I think I've sorted out a way I can hear it now...as soon as I'm done writing up this, I'll be listening to it...I hope).

Anyway, hopefully I'll be back in a day or two (or earlier, if we're lucky enough to have the power sorted out sooner than expected)!

P.S. New Britney album and single! Woo!

#7 Girls Aloud, "Sexy! No No No..."

I can't deny no way my d-d-dirty mind is saying
"Lover, come and get me, get me"

I'd not really appreciated Girls Aloud before this song. Sure, there were a couple of songs of theirs I liked, but I rarely ever listened even to those, and sure, when "Something Kinda Ooooh" came out I adored that, but it was with "Sexy! No No No...", the lead single for their fourth studio album, Tangled Up, that they officially won me over. From first listen, I loved it, heart and soul. It's an exciting piece of music to listen to, and not even necessarily on the "edgy production" front--it's just a racing pop song that grabs you in and pulls you along on pop-with-electro-and-dance-and-rock rollercoaster ride by sheer force of energy. It was one of those songs I never had to take a break from, that got constantly play from me throughout the entire year, and that got me interested in their back catalogue and their new album, which is one of the best albums of the year, even if it loses just a little of its must-listen-to-ness by the end. Girls Aloud are one of the greatest pop groups working today--and thank goodness for them, because pop would be a lot less fun and exciting without them.

Find it on: Tangled Up

No doubt about it, oh

Note: Blogger currently hates my Internet connection at the moment, or vice-versa, so I can't leave comments on any Blogger blog at the moment, mine or other people's--hopefully it'll be better by tomorrow!

Off the top of my head, I can't think of an album that has a better four opening tracks than Tangled Up, the new album from British group Girls Aloud; of course, I don't like "Call The Shots" as the opening track--something more energetic would've been nice--but that's only a small quibble. I've always loved "Sexy! No No No..." and the other two songs, track 2, "Close To Love," and track 4, "Girl Overboard," are complete keepers. (So far, "Can't Speak French" isn't really working for me--it's just too...squooshy. Or maybe it just suffers following four such fantastic tracks.) I legitimately think I need to memorize the lyrics to "Close To Love," especially the bridge--completely anthemic. The song is punchy, powerful, catchy, and makes sure that chorus, bridge, verse, middle 8, and all the little bits in between are all great. "Girl Overboard" is just as strong and exactly the sort of thing that you never get in the U.S. It's complete pop. The bouncy (is that a ska-like beat? I really need to learn my genres) "Control Of The Knife," less full of electro swirls than "Close To Love" and "Girl Overboard," is another early favorite of mine as well.

Girl Overboard--full of electronically created noises, but so very very pop. Even if the splashes during the chorus don't get you giggling, you at least get a great catchy chorus, based on those aforementioned electronics. I didn't find "Sexy! No No No..." too cool-for-the-sake-of-being-cool or without hooks or melody at all, but if you were worried about the too cool thing, it's not here at all--this is still a very Girls Aloud song, but it's not a world away from some stuff you get out of continental Europe from commercial pop acts, or that far away from the influences of a decade or two ago.

I'm completely confused at this point about where you want to order the album from so as to get everything you want--different covers, bonus CDs--so I'll just say that you can buy Girls Aloud's fourth studio album, Tangled Up, from their official site here (I think that'll get you the cover picture with them on it and with the lyrics inside the album booklet, but not the bonus mix CD or any pictures inside the album booklet...or something) or digitally here.

Next up: maybe something American or Norwegian.

No, no, no

The funniest thing I have seen in quite some time.

(You have to have seen the [disappointing, for me and some others] new Girls Aloud album artwork and read the record company's explanation for it, and have heard about the whole Hard-Fi cover artwork thing, to get it, but it's worth catching up if you haven't already, because, truly, it's hilarious.)

Though, speaking of jokes related to said album cover, I quite like this one as well.

Speaking of disappointing, after loving "Sexy! No No No," I'm not thinking much of "Call The Shots" yet--maybe it's something I'll like more after hearing it more times?

Edit: of course--I listened to "Call The Shots" again after this and liked it much more.