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Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Nena ft. Duncan Townsend - Caravan of Love  

Here's some serious 80s revival for you - an 80s one hit wonder (Nena of course is the lovely lady behind 99 Red Balloons/Luftballons) covering the song that the Housemartins sent to no.1 in a capella form in 1986. It reached the top spot 5 days before Christmas, so although it was succeeded as Christmas no.1 by Jackie Wilson's Reet Petite, you could still say it's a Christmas song, so I will be putting this superbly jolly cover version on all my Christmas compilation CDs from now on. The serious music nerds among you will know that the song was first released a year before that by Isley Jasper Isley (a spin-off of the Isley Brothers, if you couldn't guess), a big US hit. Nena adds a new twist with her German vocals and releasing the song as a male/female duet with a little-known German (despite his very British name and vocal similarity to David Bowie) singer. It's such a cheerful, uplifting song, I just had to share.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Katerine - Catfight  

Here is the latest single by Katerine Avgoustakis, who won Belgium's Star Academy a few years ago and subsequently released a great self-titled pop album, including the ace single Here Come All The Boys, which I posted here in March. I love the DIY-style single cover and the cat motif in the lyrics of this song, even fitting "miaow miaow" into the chorus! This is probably the rockiest thing Katerine has done, but it's still most definitely poptastic. It's nothing revolutionary but very good quality pop, very cute, and even has a little rap section towards the end.

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Linda Sundblad - Cheat  

I haven't heard Gwen Stefani's new album yet but I doubt anything on it will be as acetastic as this track from Linda's new CD, Oh My God. In fact, when I heard it I did honestly exclaim "oh my God!" without realising how fitting it was. Linda's style is retro-pop - think early Madonna or Kylie, but still great for the 00s pop market. This is just one of the most fun and catchiest songs I've heard all year, so I think anyone who likes to sing along to smiley yet sassy pop music will have a new favourite in this one. The album's only £7.99 on CD Wow and full of songs as great as this, so I highly recommend you put it at the top of your Christmas list.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Lilyjets - Hit By A Girl  

Finally I have got hold of Norwegian rock-poppets Lilyjets' album 3rd Floor and I must say I'm quite pleased with it. Going Blind and Crave are impossible to keep up with but the girls have done a great job at attempting to create a whole album where those two masterpieces don't completely overshadow everything else. The other tracks are surprisingly country, while at times Lilyjets, like their fellow yet far inferior Scandinavian girlband Nylon, sound like they must be Irish. In fact, if B*Witched were still going I think they'd sound quite like Lilyjets. I chose this track to post because the chorus is supremely catchy and the lyrics are very girl power. For the non-Applephobics among you, the album is available on iTunes - otherwise, make your way to CDON.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Robyn - With Every Heartbeat  

I'm not sure where this song comes from or how it fits into Robyn's plans for world domination, but I'm sure it will be quite pivotal because it's a fantastic song - probably the best thing she's recorded since her self-titled 2005 album. It has the sophisticated yet emotionally moving qualities of Be Mine in a slightly less poppy but lovely, delicate electro style, like Dream On (the song she recorded with Christian Falk and Ola Salo) but better, or Anneli Drecker or the last track on Pretty Scary Silver Fairy. The song is sad but not depressing - it gives the feeling that everything is going to be alright, you just have to keep going and soon the chance to make things better will arise and all will be well and fine and hurrah once again. Remember Robyn has an EP out in the UK this week so please buy it, and if you don't have the last album buy that too cos it's even better.

Monday, November 13, 2006

Kate Goes - Heartbeat  

Pipettes fans, listen up! Here is a brilliant new band you almost certainly won't have heard of, but if you have any sense at all you'll soon be absolutely in love with them. Kate Goes are a group of 3 girls and 2 boys who sing super-cute and adorably amusing indie-pop and dress up in a different theme for each show. They're currently on tour with the equally amusing and fab Misty's Big Adventure, and last night's show left their CDs flying off the merchandise table - everyone in my group bought a copy of the lovingly home-made 3-track CD and we all fell in love with this song with it's lyrics which are simply the sweetest thing I have ever heard. There are so many love songs that just express their love in the same old clichés, but this one is entirely original with phrases like "I'm the mould around your cheese", "I'm the rice and you're krispies", "you're the charger for my batteries", "you're the squeegee that I squeeze" etc. If you don't love this you are dead inside!

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Gia Farrell - Hit Me Up  

Here's a new female singer with the same A&R guy Britney worked with for the first few years of her career, although her sound is more Christina - in fact she could be Xtina's little sister in sound and style, but a bit poppier in her youth (she is but 17, although that's probably old now in this world of Jojos and Aly and AJs). The song is on the soundtrack to the cute new penguin film Happy Feet, sharing cover space with Jason Mraz, Brittany Murphy and some up and coming artists like Prince and The Beach Boys.

Friday, November 10, 2006

ABBA - Honey Honey  

With Bjorn's adorable appearance on X factor last week and the release of the ABBA no.1s compilation and a book about Mamma Mia, ABBA are having a bit of a revival at the moment. OK, so an ABBA revival is basically a yearly event (last year's of course spurned by Madonna's amazing ABBA-sampling hit Hung Up) but I always get a bit over-excited and listen to ABBA Gold and the Definitive Collection (I do have both, but I won't buy the new one) on repeat for about a month. It was in my purchase of said Definitive Collection that I was introduced to several amazing ABBA songs I hadn't previously heard, including this one which I fell in love with instantly. A life where this song is a fitting soundtrack would be the best life I can imagine - the song is so incredibly jolly and heart-leapingly gorgeous. The style is quite 60s (quite Pipettes-esque actually!) and softer than some of the belt-along ABBA classics, but for those of you who do want something to sing along to I am posting as a little bonus treat in celebration of ABBA's brilliance, So Long, which, like Honey Honey, wasn't released in the UK, and is one of the catchiest songs ever made.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Skamp - Split The Atom (Na Na Na)  

You may have to wade through a lot of pointless trance music to get to it, but there is some great music to be found in Eastern Europe and Lithuanian trio Skamp are one of my favourite recent discoveries. You may remember their slightly lyrically unimaginative Eurovision entry You Got Style from 2001, but this is much better - an unusual poppy track with strong female vocals and an amusing rap. They're very 90s, not at all cool, but brilliant for it - even without the aceness of the music I'd still love them for seeming like such a fun group. The song reminds me of Underneath It All by No Doubt, as the singer (who is actually Irish, hence her not sounding very Lithuanian) has a slightly rocky voice (quite Sheryl Crow-ish) but the style of music is reggae-pop like Blue Lagoon or Ace of Base. Beware: You'll be singing this all day. Thanks to Mr Bear for providing the version of this I wanted - if you downloaded the non-ace one, now get this and see the difference.

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