Today's post will be mainly news and updates, so it'll be a little light on the music side; hopefully, though, after being bombarded by Click Five songs, you all can take a low-mp3 day.
Aleksander Denstad With's (of Norway) debut album will come out on October 23, preceded on October 9 by his second single, "The Other Side." You can listen to most (though not all) of the single at
his official website. It's very ballady and slow and my first instinct is to write it off, but there's a possibility it might be a grower, especially if the rest of the album isn't like it. The ominous-ness of the verses is sort of nice and I think the chorus might sound better in higher quality. I'd still prefer a more upbeat song, I think, but I suppose every album is going to have some ballads on it. I think I was just hoping for something more...fun from Aleksander, so it's too early to judge whether I'm not in love with "The Other Side" because of its quality or because it's not what I was hoping for. On the other hand, I still quite like his debut single "A Little Too Perfect."
The video for it is nothing to write home about (just Aleks performing in a big room), but the song is still good--mid-tempo, sort of pop-rock, with nice piano parts.
In news that's about a week old, Matt Willis's second single, "Hey Kid," went in at #11--I'll take that! I was pretty worried, even if his statements about being dropped if it flopped were probably jokes. His next single, due out November 6, is going to be "Don't Let It Go To Waste," which is more balladish and not quite as good as either of his previous two singles (it has no helicopter noises, so it's already at a disadvantage), but I'm hoping getting to release three singles is a good sign for the album. In all likelihood, I'll end up posting a B-side from the "Hey Kid" single on the day "Don't Let It Go To Waste" comes out, unless I get overwhelmed by the good guitar-strumminess of it and post it earlier (a strong possibility).
Aaron "out of V" (a boyband I missed the first time around, then didn't quite get at first, and now love) Buckingham has a new song up on his
MySpace, "In My Head." I think it's mid-tempo (it's also sort of sad or worried-sounding) and I know it's good. I'd love him to have a solo career, though I'm not sure how successful it would be, but it's really good to see that he hasn't "gone indie" or rocky just to increase his chances of success. He's funny, loves pop, and makes great pop music--we need more artists like that. There's already a
MySpace page representing his fans, so hopefully that's a good sign?
Speaking of MySpace brings us to artists who know how to work the Internet to their advantage. I love it when artists use "unconventional" techniques to promote themselves and when they acknowledge the importance and power of the Internet. Far too many artists ignore it and, be they established or not, that's one of the worst things they can do (established artists, if they don't provide updates on what they're doing, risking losing not only the fringe fans but, if they leave people hanging long enough, even the very core of their fanbase, and Internet buzz can make all the difference for someone trying to "make it big"). One artist who exemplifies the idea of working the Internet, especially the blogosphere, is Chris Price. I read about him
on Spark*Pop back in May (and a bit of research reveals he's been featured on many other blogs, too), so, when an e-mail from him popped up in my inbox, I knew I would be willing to feature him here. His song "
And She Was" is minimal electro-pop ("minimal" might not be the right word, because it's not lacking for effects, and the chorus builds--Chris just has a laid-back and distant delivery that reminds me of what you would hear in a minimal-esque song). I'm not familiar enough with the genre to be able to describe it in detail, but it's good--what else do you need to know? Well, probably the addresses for his
website and
MySpace. And that you can buy Chris's song "Charge Me Up" on iTunes (and not just in the U.S. either--yet another thing to be praised! An artist who recognizes that his songs might have appeal beyond his own country and is willing to allow people elsewhere to purchase them legally! I think we need to rope Chris into giving some other artists some lectures about how things should be in music and music promotion).
Heinz Winckler's spiffy but slow
new website now says that his album
Moment Of Truth will be "in stores latest September 11." Is this the third release date pushback? "Another Day" has grown on me, though, so, worry about the other tracks notwithstanding ("Runaway Lover" has potential to grow, though), I'll probably end up getting the album, whenever it finally gets released.
Thierry Amiel (of France) has a new album due out this November and a single, "Coeur Sacre," out this month (he also has a new image, complete with stubble, not pictured here). You can listen to some of it at
his official website. It's not very poppy (though, if you don't want to categorize it in that special genre for distinctively French music, it would probably fit best under the genre of pop), but I'm sort of liking it--it's got a very hushed delivery over an electronic backing. I've never gotten around to buying his whole first album and I'm still not sure how I'd feel about a whole album's worth of Thierry's songs, but I'm open to going either way on the issue--Thierry's at least got me listening.
Next up: convient that we ended with Thierry, because the next two days' posts will probably be about French artists. In a week or two weeks or so, I'm planning a huge special (at least four days, possibly more) about a certain boyband--hint: I've mentioned them here before, but never posted any of their songs.
aleksander denstad with matt willis aaron buckingham chris price heinz winckler thierry amiel
Poor Matt Willis. Living proof that being part of one of the world's best music groups, releasing one of 2006's best singles, making an album with fantastic songs on it, and winning a reality TV show doesn't translate into commercial success as a solo artist. In what was probably a last-ditch attempt to explore the seemingly last possible option towards upping his popularity, Matt (or his record company) decided to release a cover of the Primitives' "Crash" as a tie-in with the movie Mr. Bean's Holiday. Sadly, and despite Matt even looking cleaned-up and presentable on the single cover, the song entered the UK charts at #31, Matt's lowest chart placing yet. Though I thought I preferred Shebang's version at first, I'm relatively sure this is now my favorite cover of the song, essentially making it more modern and a little more pop-rock (I guess most people would say pop-punk, but that phrase generally makes me cringe), a little crunchier. It's fun, catchy (love those swirling guitars in the middle 8, and I always adore repeated nonsense syllables), and yet another case of an underperforming single from my favorite pop-rock artists. Matt's no longer signed, but I live in the most likely vain hope that we hear more music from him at some point in the future.
