I've previously found young British singer Florrie, a Xenomania protégé who's branching out into work with other producers, promising and frustrating, capable of making songs with instant appeal (see the Fred Falke remix of "Call 911" ) but too often creating music that feels...distant, both as a result of her voice and her style. It's the same sort of problem that prevented me from getting swept away by, for example, Sally Shapiro, though my personal tastes already prefer Florrie much more. 04 I Took A Little Something [...]
Amazing songwriter Tony Nilsson gave a radio interview a week ago and, amongst the other comments I had to strain to understand a third of (yeah, I need to find a Swedish tutor pronto), one of the more interesting facts was that Fernando Fuentes sang the original demos for Tony's "You're Out Of My Life" and "Like Suicide" (the latter of which Fernando co-wrote). The show even played a few clips, excerpted below for anyone who's as much of a pop nerd as I am. Like Suicide [...]
Oh Alright , the debut album from Sweden's Le Kid, bounces back and forth between lush, swoony mid-tempos, cheeky '60s kitsch, and day-glo '80s pop. As you'd expect from from a group whose "background" members are three of Sweden's best up-and-coming songwriters, the highlights are stunning. The jubilantly bouncy "We Should Go Home Together" updates Stock-Aitken-Waterman with a wink but also with so much joy that the group reveals a real affection for that sound, as well as an understanding of what made its best examples work. "Mercy Mercy," the group's debut single, is a cheery, summer-ready [...]
I give up. Abandoning his previous husky-voiced balladry and pop-rock, Dutch singer Jim returns with a new single and new style. "Feel You Love" is a RedOne ripoff with a level of shamelessness not heard since Cascada's "Evacuate The Dancefloor," only with the budget RedOne-style beats made even more stop-start. It is incredibly cheesy, I'm not sure I'd introduce it to any of my friends, and the music video opens up with a shirtless male model and ends with a couple undressing each other--because jumping on the sound-of-the-moment bandwagon wasn't desperate enough, apparently... [...]
Some of the tracks making me happy at the moment: Saint Etienne, "Tonight (Demo)" and "DJ (Demo)": the solo songwriting career of former Xenomania member Tim Powell got off to a strong start with soaring dance joy of Alex Gaudino's "I'm In Love (I Wanna Do It)" and the fizzy pop bounce of Ed Drewett's "Champagne Lemonade," but hit a stumbling block with the interestingly dark but ultimately payoff-lacking "Together" by the Pet Shop Boys. Thankfully, he's back on track with [...]
My conflicted feelings about Eric Saade the popstar have been documented to the point where I'm sure it's straining reader patience, but my constantly optimistic attitude towards Swedish boy pop means that, like many other fans of Scandinavian pop, I'm looking forward to the release of Eric's second album. Oddly titled Saade Vol. 1 , it's released June 29. Hearts In The Air (feat. J-Son) by poppostergirl There's at least one reason to [...]
I was starting to worry that the dance-influenced pop-rock anthem trend of the past few years (Metro Station's "Shake It," Cobra Starship's "Good Girls Go Bad," Boys Like Girls' "Love Drunk") was never coming back. Who knew Canadian punk pop band Simple Plan would swoop in to save the day? Having failed to convincingly build on the more grown-up sound of 2005's "Untitled" on the album that followed it, they've finally figured a way to transition from the innuendos and (admittedly sometimes fun) tantrums that first brought them success into a sound [...]
Maybe I'm forgetting something, but it feels like Roxette's new single, "Speak To Me"... 01 Speak To Me (Bassflow Remake) by poppostergirl ...has the Swedish duo's best chorus in a long time. A long time. As in "up there with classic Roxette ballads" long time. (I've probably recited my thoughts about Bassflow often enough; check here for my most recent rave. Suffice to say I think he gives "Speak To Me" just [...]
When a clip of Kate Ryan's new single "LoveLife" was posted to her SoundCloud page, I began to worry the album era responsible for uniting the two great pop forces of Kate and Le Kid's Felix and Marta was going to underwhelm... KateRyan LoveLife Radio Edit by Kate Ryan ...I'm sorry, Kate. How could I ever have doubted you? "LoveLife" is pop Kate, not full-on trance Kate. Neither of those is [...]
Two excellent new songs were recently made available as free downloads from their artists' websites. That "free" tag comes with the caveat of handing over your e-mail address, but neither is to be missed. American actress and Boomkat singer Taryn Manning 's voice is processed and distorted more than I've ever heard from her before on the new solo song she posted on her site, "Turn It Up" (stream above), as [...]
The musical event you know you all were waiting for is finally here: the studio version of the single from the combined New Kids On The Block-Backstreet Boys supergroup, the awesomely named NKOTBSB, has arrived. With hooky synth staccato pulses and washes, a singalong chorus reminiscent of co-writer Claude Kelly's "In Your Head" for Jason Derulo but with less "seriousface intensity," lyrics that semi-function both in regards to a personal relationship and their relationship with the audience, "Don't Turn Out The Lights" takes up right where [...]
It's kind of getting wordy around here, so, straight to the point, here's a great mood-lifting pop song from Nicole Scherzinger's new album. Like the album's lead single, "Poison," it's produced by RedOne, but, much as I love it--which is a lot, considering it's currently the song I keep going back to on a surprisingly enjoyable although not filler-free album--I hope it never gets the single treatment. It's best served as a little album track treasure. As others have said , her current single, "Don't Hold Your Breath," is [...]
Sweden is lucky enough to be home to several of the most interesting, refreshing up-and-coming pop acts of the moment, all of them quite different. Le Kid makes pure pop decorated with big dollops of kitsch. Sound of Arrows make dreamy electronic pop. I've been remiss, though, in not mentioning a third such exciting act: Viktorious. In his earlier musical life as a member of the group Sugarplum Fairy, Viktor Norén helped create indie-friendly rock. His current music sheds almost all trappings of that sound, though. [...]
Will Tyler Hilton ever release his second major label studio album? Heaven knows I'm probably the only person who's never seen One Tree Hill to still be interested. Since 2004's The Tracks of Tyler Hilton , Tyler seems to have gone from EP to EP with a constantly dangled promise of The Storms We Share , said next album, always just out of our reach. I can't say I blame him or his record label--given the difficulty the young-guy-with-guitar model is having finding traction on top forty radio, the amount of [...]
I'm officially on board the Sky Ferreira bandwagon. Though she's had enjoyable tracks before, I'm taken aback by just how much I'm won over by the young American singer's delivery of the songs on her new As If! EP. Even on a frothy, messy trifle like "99 Tears," Sky holds the whole thing together by--well, perhaps not force of personality yet, but through the emotions that slip through. Just listen to the surprisingly grown-up way the sometimes-Lolita sings "don't you know that" and "karma karma" in the song's bridge. It's a [...]
There are a bunch of things in the music world that need to be discussed--the new Britney album, some new Eurovision songs, finally having the studio version of Danny's "Catch Me If You Can"--but with the Melodifestival final starting in less than two hours, Sweden's national selection for Eurovision has to take priority. Half the time I don't know what I truly feel about any given entry until I have a gut reaction to how it ends up ranked. As of right now, though, I'd be happiest with a Danny win. I have a rising concern [...]
Sometimes, when you disappear from the Internet for a while, you miss things. Big things. Important things. Like, say, the fact that DARIN IS RECORDING A NEW ALBUM WITH AWESOME PRODUCERS. What finally clued me in to this fact was a tweet from him today saying he was recording with Anders Bagge (who has done so many songs that his discography quality varies) and Johan Kronlund . Even better news is that a month ago he apparently was recording with Niklas Bergwall (formerly of [...]
A quick note: all my support in today's Melodifestival second chance round goes to Loreen...which means she will lose her first duel and I'll be left bereft for the rest of the show. If Loreen should fail to advance, I'd like it to go to Love Generation, but really, they're a distant second. I do genuinely enjoy all four of the songs in the top bracket, though--just don't try to remind me of that fact immediately after Loreen gets knocked out. I'm much less picky about the second bracket. I'd be happy with anyone [...]
Well, at least Rachel should be happy... It's felt inevitable that we'd see Alexey Vorobyov at Eurovision one day since he popped up in the 2008 Russian national final. That was the year Dima Bilan won (and would go on to win Eurovision) and the year Sergey Lazarev took fourth, but Alexey still managed to be a standout in a long, messy final. Even if he'd won, he would never have stood a chance at making it to Eurovision. You actually had to wonder if the [...]
The demo CD of the Melodifestival boxset is pretty fascinating. Fascinating enough that it's already got me wishing for a sequel, even if the singers are more Agnetha Körsvik and Anette Ingemarsson & Ida Segersten than Linda Bengtzing and Måns Zelmerlöw. 7-17 Jag ljuger så bra by poppostergirl Noting the changes a song goes through between being demoed and being properly debuted is something only a schlager nerd would love--but that's what I am, so it's thrilling to hear the [...]
Poster Girl
![[OFFICIAL MUSICVIDEO] Jim Bakkum - Feel Your Love [ HD ]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/youtube/jEtMzmpMUjI_130.jpg)
SOUNDCLOUD WRAP: The Swiss
Escucha el ruidoso regreso de M.I.A.
Video: Pitbull And Christina Aguilera Perform “Feel This Moment” On ‘The Voice’ Finale
Video: The Postal Service – “A Tattered Line of String”
Cher’s “Woman’s World” is Now on iTunes, Finally
