Just a quick note to begin with: unless I decide to come back in a couple of hours and post something or get back earlier than expected, there's a very good chance there won't be a post tomorrow. That said, I think this song is probably good enough to tide you over until Sunday, though it's still not my favorite of this group's singles. Swedish group N.E.X. is made up of some former members of Popstars groups Excellence and Supernatural ("N.E.X." comes from their earlier name, Natural Ex, which makes those former connections more obvious). They do dance-pop, with what I'm guessing is a little too much dance for them to get mainstream radio play. I could be wrong, but I think they've only released three singles over the past few years, the first two being "Stay By My Side" and "Straight To Bed" (which is reallllly good and I recommend checking out if you like this sort of music), but at least they can be relied on to come up with something good. Of course, their MySpace (where you can also listen to another song, "Don't Go") said back in 2006 that they had eleven songs ready for their album, so I'm not exactly sure what they're doing, although I think they're on an indie label and they probably want to build up the most interest and support they can before taking the chance on an album.
Two Of A Kind--their latest single, though it's not exactly super super recent--I missed it when it came out earlier, in October or so, maybe. Catchy dance-pop with a good chorus, and I love the way sound builds during the verses into that horn-esque (but not really) electronic noise in the chorus.
I actually don't know anywhere where everyone can buy N.E.X.'s single "Two Of A Kind"--if anyone does, please let me know! All iTunes stores do have their first two singles, though, I think, and some (the Nordic countries) have "Two Of A Kind."
Next up: probably not until Sunday, but maybe something Finnish, if I can find a good quality version of it or decide to post it anyway.
Right, so there are things out there in music world right now that deserve to be written about, but just a quick post tonight for now. Today's singer is Ann Winsborn, who deserves a real thorough post about her and actual real thought about her songs--maybe I'll have to do a full review of one of her albums at some point, even if neither are super-recent. For now, though, she's Swedish, does pop with dance (house?) and disco influences, and is generally just fantastic. I'm really looking forward to whatever new material we might get from her at some point. If that does happen, though, I have no idea how I'll know, given my inability to find a really good news source about her.
Everything I Do--lovely (I'm using that word a lot, aren't I?) catchy dance-influenced pop + Ann's sweet young-sounding voice = great song. Ann's not really found success in Sweden, which is a real shame because she's never disappointed on the music front. Even if you're not in the mood for her dance-influenced music, she's got more bubblegummy stuff and disco-y stuff as well. Second album single "La La Love On My Mind" is another song to watch out for--truly catchy stuff. About the only bad thing about "Everything I Do" is that for ages every time I heard the name of Kate Ryan's song "All For You," I would instantly think of this song and wouldn't be able to think of the melody to Kate's song. Actually, that still happens most of the time...
If you like this, I definitely definitely recommend picking up the album it comes from, Everything I Am; it's very consistent and very good. Check out "Be The One," "Tonight," and "Broken Dreams" if you don't believe me. Both Ann's 2003 album Everything I Am and 2005 (I think those dates are right...maybe...ish) album Pink Collar Crime can be purchased from any country's iTunes store (Everything I Am and Pink Collar Crime). Physical CD-wise, I guess keeping an eye on eBay is your best bet.
I was going to post a Jessica Folcker song to tie in with the fact that I think she's releasing a new single, "Hot Night," and I think I may still do that soon, but I'm currently a bit too in love with the Swedish duet that I've kept saying I'm going to post and then not actually posted that it's really time that I shared it with you. Speaking of meaning to post, I've been meaning to post Patrik Isaksson's "Hos dig är jag underbar" for a while now; the song, from back in 2000, has a nice blow-out chorus. Patrik also entered the lovely ballad "Faller du så faller jag" in Melodifestivalen 2006, but that's about all of his music I'd ever really listened to until this latest single, a duet with another artist with a Melodifestivalen connection, Sarah Dawn Finer, who gave us this year's "I Remember Love" (really great in retrospect). Patrik's probably going to be in Melodifestivalen in 2008, so I imagine this song and his Melodifestivalen song, "Under mitt tunna skinn," are going to be on a new album. Sarah and Patrik are also touring together, though I'm not sure whether they're doing the single because of that or vice-versa.
Du som tog mitt hjärta--or "You who took my heart," maybe. I guess this probably counts as middle of the road (a phrase I will never look at the same way again or hear without laughing thanks to Paul), but it really is glorious. It starts quietly enough and what really isn't that minimal--a piano, Patrik's voice, a few strings, and some synth-like sounds fading in and out--but compared to the build-up that comes, it kind of is. You start to get that build up at the first chorus, where Sarah's voice and more instruments join in, and then, as some breathy ad-libby vocals fade out at the end of the chorus, I guess whatever the equivalent of "the beat dropping" is in non-dance music happens, with drums and I guess guitars (who knows? I need to go to music school), and Sarah takes the verse. Then the chorus again, this time even bigger, complete with big backing vocals, a great feeling of rising up, and a huge "feel good" feeling (well, musically, although I get the impression the lyrics are sad, which is a shame, because musically this couldn't be more uplifting). Basically, it's big and wonderful and lovely and the best sort of middle of the road stuff you can get, and I completely and utterly love it.
To buy Sarah Dawn Finer and Patrik Isaksson's single "Du som tog mitt hjärta," go here (digital).
Next up: maybe a song from the latest Jessica Folcker album.
New music videos that really aren't worth embedding because they're not must-sees but may interest you if you like the song: Shayne Ward's video for "Breathless," probably notable mainly for the lovely shades of blue in it and for the fact that Shayne, despite wearing a suit for the "main" part of the video, finds another way to take his shirt off, and Maroon 5's video for "Won't Go Home Without You," notable mainly for making me wish they hadn't sold the chorus to "Nothing Lasts Forever" to Kanye West for that one song and could release that instead. Or "Not Falling Apart." If they wanted a ballad.
Another song from the upcoming Jordin Sparks album is out and about now, albeit with verbal tags and an annoying computer noise on it that I'm guessing aren't on the real version. It's called "No Air" and features Chris Brown. It actually feels like it's floating up among the clouds--I can't really describe it in words (though "refreshing" would probably be a good one), but it's definitely less...generic-sounding than "Tattoo" was. Radio friendly? Not sure, and I'm not sure that radio quality would capture this song's essence--it really needs that crisp clean sound. I've not made up my mind on it yet, but I could very well end up thinking it's great. If it didn't have those annoying tags, maybe even post-worthy, but at any rate, it's got me at least thinking about buying her album when it comes out November 20. (I'm sure YouTube has it, but if you're interested, you should definitely hear it in better quality than it'll be at on YouTube.)
Given that Robyn's now made reference to a video for it, it seems "Be Mine!" is the next single (though that's sort of what everyone already thought). Fantastic song--hope it does well.
Da Buzz's greatest hits album is out now. It features two new songs (excluding the already released singles "Take All My Love" and "Baby Listen To Me"). "Take A Chance," which might or might not be their new single (I'm not sure), is good, and you can make up your mind about the other new song by visiting You Don't Know Pop.
Right, so I've been trying to hold back on bombarding you all with D'Nash news quite as often as I'd like to. It's pretty obvious I think they're fantastic--I seriously think "Que sabes del amor" is the BEST "pure" (i.e., not playing guitars) boy band song of the past few years. They were my favorites as Eurovision and I loved their debut album, even if they did slightly ridiculously release, what, three editions of it? Honestly, no joke, one of the best boy band albums I've heard; I was so excited about it that I did a mega-review of it, song by song, soon after hearing it. Or maybe that "one of the best" should be qualified with a "for me." Whatever, though; I've been eagerly awaiting their next album, even if the title, Todo va a cambiar (Everything's Going To Change), was a little worrying--on their debut album, they managed to sound like their own group, not like a ripoff of any of the other boy bands out there, and I have to admit I'm kind of worried that something like that still might end up happening, or even just that the album won't be able to live up to the first. I'm a little too excited about it to be really thinking about that too much, though. With the debut of their new single, a cover of one of this year's Melodifestivalen entries, Jimmy Jansson's "Amanda" (stick it out past those first few seconds which I admit are offputting--it's better than that makes it sound), and the cover for the new album (due out December 4), now's a good a time as any for me to post another song by them (with thanks to Resa for those links). First, though, a couple of their best moments on video:
The video for the debut single, "Capaz de todo"--dangling microphones! Splashing water! Horn flourishes in the background music! Lyrics that still fascinate me and that strengthen my belief that they're not "just another boy band"!
Speaking of "not just another boy band," their performance of "Una lágrima" at Spain's national finals for Eurovision. Each of the finalists had to perform all of the five final songs. Even if this wasn't one of the final five artist-and-song combinations based on viewers' votes, I think it was the best and most interesting performance on the night overall--look at that! Arty and political! Ish. I don't want to overstate the significance at all, because ultimately I know it's mainly a styling choice influenced by the song (though none of the other acts did anything like that), but it definitely works. Love the chanty bit at what's the end of this shortened version.
Escúchame--it's funny, on my initial review of the album, I think this song just barely made the cut for my "must hear"/"top tier" recommendations, but it's grown on me and grown on me since then, which means that it's a song that starts out great and gets even better. I so nearly posted "Lo haré por ti," which is simply one of the most musically adorable songs ever, or maybe even "Sexy," which, with its "sexy" posing, muttered lyrics, and (literally) moans, risks being laughable if you're not "into it" (or even if you are), but offers a payoff of a great song if you're willing to take the chance. Or "Capaz de todo," which, as I've implied up there, I love. Or "Una lágrima," which takes what you've seen performed above and continues it, proving that their version of the song stands up without the performance. "Perversa," "Qué sabes del amor," and "I Love You Mi Vida" are only not in the running because I've posted them before. Instead, though, I've gone with this mid- to up-tempo boy band-sounding song, which goes for attitude but, instead of going for full-out musical brush-off during the chorus (though the lyrics are that), the song goes for an interesting compromise of some attitude but mainly just slick pop catchiness.
You can buy a digital version of the first edition of D'Nash's (then called Nash) first album, Capaz de todo, here and the second edition here, but you're probably better of buying the third edition of it, which includes all the songs from the first edition, one of the two new songs from the second edition ("Que sabes del amor" but not "Más allá de las estrellas"), and all of the top five songs from Misión Eurovisión and "Stand By Me," which they performed in the semifinals. That edition can be purchased here (physical).
Next up: see, that's the benefit of me saving up all this news and excitement for one post--yeah, it may seem a little over the top, but it probably means you all are safe from another post about D'Nash for a little bit. Well, until the album comes out, that is! Maybe that Swedish song I keep meaning to post. I'll probably get distracted again, though.
The following song really deserves a much better write-up than what I'm going to be able to deliver in my somewhat rushed state, but it's what I want to listen to right now, so...I guess that it's getting posted! Australian group the Rogue Traders just recently released their third album, the second fronted by Natalie whose-last-name-I-can-never spell (copy and pasted from Wikipedia, it's Bassingthwaighte). Instead of going with something from from the most recent album, though (though that should probably happen at some point too), the song I'm posting is from their second, 2005's Here Come The Drums, and wasn't released until it came time for the album's fifth single, but in my eyes, it's the highlight.
In Love Again--gorgeous. Lush. Lovely. Maybe I should just go look up a bunch of synonyms for "beautiful"? Electro-pop that I would say sounds positively heaven-sent if it wasn't so swooningly emotional in such a lovely (there's that word again), never-oppressive way.
To buy the Rogue Traders' album Here Come The Drums, go here (physical) or here (digital). It's also available in some--including the U.S.'s--but not all countries' iTunes stores.
Next up: maybe that Swedish group I've been meaning to write about, and it's one I'm pretty sure you all already know.
I am wrong a lot. However, one of my bigger mistakes must have been brushing off Croatian three person (woman singer, two guys behind the scenes) dance group Colonia's "Do Kraja" when writing about it on another site--it's obviously an a-maz-ing song and I have no idea how I didn't see that at the time; a few months after dismissing it, I was addicted to its rapidfire spacey electronic beeps, haunting whistling, and irresistible melody. I really need to go investigate them fully, because I've now become quite taken with another song of theirs. It's their latest single and it's called "Pod sretnom zvijezdom" and I have absolutely no idea what it's about. I think it's the theme song for Big Brother there, as apparently "Do Kraja" was in 2006.
Pod sretnom zvijezdom--doesn't have the whistles of "Do Kraja," but makes up for that with strings and some disco influence, though it's still dance music of the sort that I'm getting the feel is "typical Colonia," if that exists and if there's any way I can guess at after only hearing two of their songs. Actually, scratch that--I think all I mean is it's on par with "Do Kraja." "Pod strenom zvijezdom" is dance music that manages to simultaneously be classy and throw-your-hands-up-in-the-air danceable at the same time.
If you at all like this, I strongly recommend picking up "Do Kraja;" both that song and the album named after at are available at numerous digital music stores, including all countries' iTunes stores. On the other hand, I'm not sure of anywhere where you can buy "Pod sretnom zvijezdom" yet. However, their official site has links to a bunch of places to buy their music, so I imagine it'll be updated with a link at some point. If it's for a new album, I expect that album will end up on iTunes eventually, too.
Next up: maybe one of the two Swedish things I've mentioned, or something Romanian.
"Break Anotha" will be available on U.S. iTunes starting this Tuesday. I still feel like the version I've got isn't good audio quality, plus there's the whole, you know, legal/support the artists thing, so I'm pretty excited about that.
Additionally, the tracklisting for his debut album, Audio Day Dream (or A.D.D.), due out December 4, has debuted. Stolen straight from Amazon, with no additions or anything:
1.) Silence Is Golden... (Intro) 2.) Break Anotha 3.) Gots To Get Her (Inspired by "Puttin' On The Ritz") 4.) Know My Name 5.) How Many Words 6.) Surrender 7.) Hate 2 Love Her 8.) Without You 9.) Here's My Hello 10.) What'cha Got 2 Lose? 11.) She's Makin' Me Lose It 12.) Bshorty Grabs Mic! 13.) End Of The World 14.) 1000 Miles 15.) I Got U 16.) ..I Choose Noise (Outro)
Sigh at the "2"s, "U", and especially "Bshorty," but I guess what else could we expect when the lead single is called "Break Anotha"? And I'm not even sure what to say about the fact that one of the songs is "inspired by 'Puttin' on the Ritz.'" I can imagine Blake singing over the Taco version of the song without too much difficulty, though, so I guess him doing a song that takes off from there isn't inconceivable. Plus, yay at 14 "real" tracks!
Side note on songwriters: apparently he co-wrote "What'cha Got 2 Lose?" with Chris Richardson from Idol and J.R. Rotem...not that that really tells us anything. Oh, and remember Josh Hoge? No, probably not. Well, anyway, he's one of the co-writers of "Know My Name" (along with, once again, Ryan Tedder, among others), which has already leaked; it was originally going to be a song for him.
Is it just me, or is anyone else worried this might be too early for the album to come out? Not that I don't want to have it as soon as possible, but they've only just recently filmed the video and the song isn't officially shipped to radios until November 20 (though it is already getting some plays). Actually, I have no idea what the best strategy would be, so I'll just hope whoever's running this knows what they're doing.
Your problems don't exist when music feels like this.
Songs are posted only for promotional purposes (I love them and want others to know about them, too)--if you like them, please "go out and buy the record"! If you are an artist, represent one, or are a songwriter/producer and would like your songs removed, I'll gladly do so (just let me know).
Just a quick note to begin with: unless I decide to come back in a couple of hours and post something or get back earlier than expected, there's a very good chance there won't be a post tomorrow. That said, I think this song is probably good enough to tide you over until Sunday, though it's still not my favorite of this group's singles. Swedish group N.E.X. is made up of some former members of Popstars groups Excellence and Supernatural ("N.E.X." comes from their earlier name, Natural Ex, which makes those former connections more obvious). They do dance-pop, with what I'm guessing is a little too much dance for them to get mainstream radio play. I could be wrong, but I think they've only released three singles over the past few years, the first two being "Stay By My Side" and "Straight To Bed" (which is reallllly good and I recommend checking out if you like this sort of music), but at least they can be relied on to come up with something good. Of course, their MySpace (where you can also listen to another song, "Don't Go") said back in 2006 that they had eleven songs ready for their album, so I'm not exactly sure what they're doing, although I think they're on an indie label and they probably want to build up the most interest and support they can before taking the chance on an album.
