Blog: Into The Groove

This blog is no longer being updated, but if you're interested in discovering more poptastic new music please visit my other site This Must Be Pop .

It's been such a long wait for JoJo's new album that someone at her label obviously decided they couldn't be so mean as to keep this incredible new song away from us for a moment longer! It leaked a few days ago, and although I am pleased to hear such an ace new song, I remember JoJo only having one song I particularly loved on each of her previous albums, so I'm hoping this isn't the only good one on her new album, as I'm sure she wouldn't have wanted her best song to leak so early. The album isn't [...]

RedOne has done two tracks for the new BSBs album, and it turns out that this one, which leaked recently, is even better than the single! I do love Straight Through My Heart, but All Of Your Life is my favourite song of those I've heard from the new album so far. I think I even like it better than Bigger, on which they reunite with Max Martin! The funny thing about All Of Your Life is that it's RedOne's most Swedish song ever. It sounds a bit like his usual sound, but the most striking similarity for me is [...]

The most exciting thing about Pixie Lott's success is that we'll get to hear her album, which she worked on with some of the world's very best songwriters and producers. Among them is RedOne, aka Moroccan-Swedish Nadir Khayat, the hottest producer in the world at the moment. Two songs have leaked which RedOne produced for Pixie, so I thought I'd share them both with you. Here We Go Again is my favourite of the two, but they're both really catchy pop numbers which define Pixie as anything but the Duffy-for-kids image that Mamo Do unfortunately gave her. This is proper [...]

If, like me, you can never decide if you prefer r&b divas or cutesy acoustic-poppers, then Priscilla Renea is the artist for you, as she's perched right in the middle of those two genres. I Fell in Love is sonically a blend of Shontelle and Yael Naim, plus the character of Hafdis Huld. I wasn't sure about her voice at first, but every time I listen to I Fell in Love, I become more obsessed with. I have indeed fallen in love! It's such a sweet, bouncy song with so many lyrics I don't know how Priscilla doesn't run out [...]

One of the first ever reality TV bands, Lollipop were a girl group who won Popstars in Italy back in 2001. Don't Leave Me Now was their second single, but I only heard it very recently for the first time. It's certainly the best song I've heard by them, although I also quite like This is the Reason. Of all the singers I've heard for whom English is not their first language, Lollipop are among the worst at pronunciation. It doesn't affect my enjoyment of the song, but it would be interesting to hear a version sung by English singers. [...]

Daisy has posted a few new songs on her MySpace recently, and I've been listening to them lots in order to decide on my favourite. In the end I had to choose this one, a sort of Daisy Dares You theme tune, which is handily available as a free mp3. Since I last wrote about Daisy, her career has progressed quite a bit. She's now signed to Sony and working on new songs for her forthcoming album. I wonder if she'll be able to make anything better than No.1 Enemy or if that will end up being the first single? [...]

• Daisy Dares You - Daisy Dares You (free ... » 05 Daisy Dares You.mp3

Being a huge fan of both Robyn and Yelle, you can imagine my excitement when I heard that they are releasing a special iTunes EP together. It is called Foreign Exchange and features one song by each of the girls, a cover of one of the other girl's hits. Robyn covers A cause des garçons with the translated title Because of Boys, and Yelle covers Who's That Girl and renames it Qui est cette fille. Both of the new versions are as brilliant as you would expect, since Robyn and Yelle are perfectly matched for this kind of project. It's [...]

She may present herself as a new Feist/Regina Spektor kind of artist, and the comparison is supported by her current single Melody, but All I Want and Everlasting are the most poptastic songs I've heard since Battlefield. Kate's music (and her vocals) could easily be mistaken for Swedish. Her voice is very similar to Adiam Dymott, actually. All the songs on her MySpace are very good, and I'll certainly be buying her album when I get the chance. I can't imagine anyone who reads this blog not liking her music. In fact, I think most of you are going to [...]

If you can't get enough of Jordin Sparks' amazing new single, Battlefield, then here's another Ryan Tedder song in the Bleeding Love/Halo/Battlefield style. I love Esmée's first single, Outta Here (and even posted it here a couple of months ago), but the album is quite average, which is disapppointing considering she worked with many big name writers and producers. Victim is definitely the best song on the album, and if she has any sense at all she'll release it as her next single. The only thing I dislike about it is her prenunciation of "victim" as "vic-dumb"! It's very catchy, [...]

Adding an electronic slant to rock or r&b music is nothing special these days, but now the trend has spread to another genre and the result is quite fantastic. Now forgive me if I'm forgetting something major, but have you ever heard a song before that could most aptly be described as electro-country? Whether you have or not, you're just about to! Robots in Love is half Taylor Swift, half Margaret Berger (well, who else could I compare a song about robot love to?). It's gloriously cute and happy, danceable and adorable. The band's other songs aren't quite so country-influenced, [...]

As you may know, the Backstreet Boys have got back together with Max Martin, the man who caused their success by giving them some of his best ever songs. I don't know how many songs they've recorded together, but one called Bigger has leaked. A short live recording has been on YouTube for a while already, but now there's a full length studio version doing the rounds. Last time the BSBs worked with Max they were one of the first acts to try out the Max-rock sound, and together they came up with classics like Just Want You to Know [...]

As a popstar who regularly worked with Max Martin in the early days of his brilliant career, I have often tried to get into Jessica Folcker's music, but I have never really managed it. Confusingly, none of the songs she did with Max really float my boat, but a recent random listen to some of her singles made me realise that my mistake was in only listening to her Max Martin productions. As crazy as it sounds, Jessica's best songs are not actually the ones she made with Max! Less crazy, however, is the fact that this one sounds remarkably [...]

Every new artist has a RedOne song on their album these days, from R&B girls like Pixie and Esmee Denters to boybands like V Factory and Menudo. My latest favourite RedOne song is the new single by US R&B girlband Jada, which was released to iTunes last week. The verses are just OK but the chorus is brilliantly catchy. The bit which goes "I know, you know, I'm seXAY!" has been stuck in my head all afternoon. I think it's another of RedOne's masterpieces, and it could potentially make Jada the next big American pop group.

I thought I was feeling inexplicably cheery earlier, until I realised why - it was because I'd just discovered this super-ace and uplifting new song! Eva and the Heartmakers have released some fairly good singles over the past few years, but with Please! they burst into the realms of extreme poptasticness. Eva Weel Skram was a contestant from 2005's Idol series in Norway (she came 6th, with Jorun Stiansen becoming the winner), and after the show she joined forces with her husband, Thomas Stenersen, to form this duo. They're now on their second album, and Please! is their fourth hit [...]

Hooray, it's a new BWO album! I've been listening to it all morning and although I think it lacks the variety of my fave BWO album, Halcyon Days, it's a very enjoyable set of songs and certainly equal in quality to Fabricator. I picked these two songs to share with you (apologies for the low quality sound - I'll post better versions when I can) because they were the ones that instantly stood out for me, but of course my favourites are quite likely to change with the many more listens I plan to give this album. I do think, [...]

Esmee is a Dutch artist who's been in development for over 2 years, and finally she's releasing her debut single, which is co-written by her mentor, Justin Timberlake. Despite being Dutch and never having released anything before, she has millions of fans around the world, but unless you're the sort of person who can be bothered to listen to random people singing cover versions on YouTube, you probably won't have heard of her. It was Justin who decided to take up her cause after seeing her on YouTube (and noticing her millions of fans, of course), and with such high [...]

(Will upload to Imeem when it's working) One of the very best things about being completely obsessed with pop music, like I am, is that every so often an act who you liked years ago, without anyone else taking any notice, comes back and gets all the credit they deserve. It happened with Just Jack a few years ago (even Annie Mac, a supposed music expert, had no idea he's on his 3rd album now), and then last year the band formerly known as Dear Eskiimo became a huge success under the name of The Ting Tings. Now it's happening [...]

I think Måns Zelmerlöw must be obsessed with hos (or hoes). Strange way to begin a post, I know, but I have reason for my suspicions: All of the best songs on his new album begin with "Ho"! Hope and Glory of course, then the best ballad (Hold On) and the best upbeat song (Home). I thoroughly recommend Hold On, but I decided to post Home, cos I'm sure there are many readers of ITG who have no patience for ballads, but there is certainly no-one who dislikes an upbeat poptastic number like Home. If you do, you're clearly quite [...]

I wanted to post some of Daisy's (old?) songs which aren't up on her MySpace anymore, as no-one else has posted them, but when it comes down to it, No.1 Enemy is by far her best song. On first listen I thought it was pretty good, but it wasn't until the next day, after having the chorus stuck in my head all night, that I realised its true brilliance. Her other songs are all very much worth a listen, and show great promise for Daisy to become a super-ace popstar in the future. I've just uploaded my favourite [...]