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Monday, February 13, 2012

This Must Be Pop  

This blog is no longer being updated, but if you're interested in discovering more poptastic new music please visit my other site This Must Be Pop.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

JoJo - Keep Forgetting (To Forget About You)  

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 actually expected to be released until next year. Keep Forgetting is a very emotional mid-tempo pop song, and the fact that it's produced by Billy Steinberg and Josh Alexander, the guys responsible for Too Little Too Late, much of The Veronicas' first album and Don't Let It Go To Your Head by Fefe/Lilyjets/Jordin should give you an idea of what to expect. It's very, very good indeed!

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Backstreet Boys - All Of Your Life (Need Love)  

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 to BWO! The backing music sounds just like them. In fact, if BWO did a song with RedOne, it would probably sound quite like this, and now I'm kind of sad that Nadir is so sought after now that he's unlikely to ever work with BWO...

Friday, July 10, 2009

Pixie Lott - Rolling Stone and Here We Go Again  

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 all out pop music, and these songs are the reason that I will defend Pixie in the face of all the music critics who, despite the current pop revival, still seem to see her 'stage school-ness' as a bad thing. I have to wonder if they are just jealous that she had success handed to her on a plate, signing such a massive record deal at such a young age, but her live performances show that she has the talent to pull it off. While she may not be the brain of Britain or have the most interesting of personalities, she's identifiable for the teenage girl audience, and most importantly, she's a vehicle for amazing pop music. Is that really something to complain about?

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Priscilla Renea - I Fell in Love  

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 of breath. Priscilla is one of the many new artists who earned their record deals due to their huge popularity on YouTube, and I actually like that this has become a trend. It's a much more democratic way of deciding who gets a record deal and of course benefits the label and the artist as there is the security of already knowing the artist has public appeal. You can understand why people love her when you see her singing the dictionary on YouTube!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Lollipop - Don't Leave Me Now  

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. Don't Leave Me Now is very typical of early 00's pop, an obvious attempt to imitate Max Martin's sound, and one of the more successful of those. Lollipop broke up in 2004 and it seems none of them have been successful since, except for one member named Dominique, who entered Star Academy in France, where she came second and released an album.

Tuesday, June 02, 2009

Robyn and Yelle's Foreign Exchange  

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 the sort of thing I'd dream up but never expect to really happen - it's almost too good to be true! I've uploaded both the new versions to Imeem, so I'd love to know how you think they compare to each other and to the original versions of the songs. Personally I think Qui est cette fille is my favourite, but I do love them both.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Kate Earl - All I Want and Everlasting  

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 absolutely adore these songs. There are hints of Lykke Li or Santogold's style, but with the poptasticness multiplied by 100. She's signed to Universal and working with Tommy Mottola, so expect a big promotional campaign for Kate, which will most likely be followed with huge success. Kate Earl is definitely a name which will be much better known this time next year.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Esmée Denters - Victim  

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, though, especially the "ah-I" bits. It will be interesting to see whether Esmée is successful in the UK, cos I think her career could easily go either way. She's not particularly well known here from her YouTube fame, but the combination of a song as good as Outta Here and the backing of Justin Timberlake will get her plenty of publicity. Personally I think Kristinia DeBarge might beat Esmée to becoming the next new female R&B star in the UK (along with Alexandra Burke, of course) but there could certainly be room for both of them in our charts, and if so it'll be a very poptastic year for R&B.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Beautiful Small Machines - Robots in Love  

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, but they're just as brilliant. Beautiful Small Machines are undoubtedly one of my favourite discoveries of 2009 so far, and that means something because I've discovered some amazing new pop acts this year. Check out all of the songs on their MySpace, because there's not one track on there that I can't say I absolutely love! The band members, Bree and Donnie, seem like great fun people and you must look at the cute robot pictures in their Pics section on MySpace. This duo are definitely going to be giving my other favourite bands a run for their money this year. I can't wait til they get a whole album out!

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