THE PERFECT POP-BAND THAT THE U.S.A. SOMEHOW MISSED...

The Pop Awards are done with! Some surprises and some not. In case you hadn't noticed its also Christmas time! Naturally, blogs as well as print media are recalling, rejoicing and crying a tear or two as 2008 gets ready to tighten its party corset.....so this is DSTP's way of doing the Christmas/New Year thing in the only way it knows how to-through pop.

I discovered this track "Summer's Gone" on the L.P by Slumber Party Girls which I tracked down through my addiction to girlbands. I didnt expect much but their album is very strong! It seems they've had very little attention paid to them. Which is so sad as the album is so electric and utterly different. The track "Summer's Gone" is an absolute pop anthem of a song but the album also contains songs like the well-crafted "Carousel" which is very much like Madonna's "Dear Jessie" and the "Texting Song" is nothing short of genius. Many detract the American pop scene but scratch a little deeper and you'll find some great pop acts. The ultra addictive "My Life" which extols the virtues of doing homework and telling bullies at school where to go make fans of classic McFly remember how good they were back in the day. The album refuses to be guitarpop, bubblegumpop or rnbpop. Its everything! And all so catchy too! Under the guise of the writing skills of Ron Fair and Stefanie Ridel (who used to be in the same girlband-Wild Orchid-as Stacey Ferguson aka Fergie) the album called "Dance Revolution" reminds me of the poppy exuberance of Christina Aguilera's first album. I highly recommend picking this CD up.

So what makes them sooooooo good? Its the song "Summer Gone" and its message. It guides the listener to the start of school, following the rules and making new friends and "making new memories". They remember the summer, but rejoice the "tan" and the ritual sharing of stories. What struck me the most was the pretty couplet about the inevitability of time and the end of year in the line:

"Back to school-soon turns to Halloween-Blink an eye and its Christmas Eve"

And then before you know it, the beach is calling you and your signing graduation books. This is the story of 2007 (but also any-year) and it makes me warm inside. Its a Christmas song but not in the normal traditional sense. It takes stock of the year and I love it for that reason. No jingle bells and no "end of the year" sillyness! Just a blissful happy celebration of a year. Even if you've had a rocky 2007, in its short 2 minutes "Summers Gone" manages to get you to recall and prosper the beautiful moments you've had....

Listen to the album here (Official Site)
Buy The Album Here (Amazon)
Buy/Download Album Here (Walmart)

THE SARAH WHATMORE AWARD FOR GIVING POP FANS AMAZING SINGLES BUT SADLY NO ALBUM...

The Sarah Whatmore Award for giving us pop fans amazing singles but sadly no album!

Winner: Supersister

Supersister launched their careers with the amazing pop anthem Coffee. With its references to hot toffee and caffeine addiction their debut single predicted the current 2007 craze of Starbucks, Neros and all their ilk. It is said the UK drinks more coffee than tea which is pretty amazing considering tea built the British empire. Perhaps then Coffee was released just too early but exposes the brilliance of the girlband Supersister. In this time period, the Spice Girls were splitting hairs with dodgy Darkchild collaborations and Atomic Kitten saved their careers with the Mills and Boone classic Whole Again. Supersister stormed onto the pop scene with all turbo’s charged and metaphores as bright as the rainbows that created them. The first single was a sequel to Its Raining Men. Heads turned, necks aroused and hotpants picked out. Coffee confirmed that a brand new girlband had arrived.

Further eye-brows were raised with the second camp-as-tits single called Shopping. If Coffee predicted the nations’ love for drinking a latte, Supersister predicted the UK’s love for credit cards, Selfridges, H&M and going into debt decked out in Gucci, bling and Prada heels. Despite the amazing trick to predict the future, the country failed to respond however the fan base grew and grew. Then came the 3rd single Summer Gonna Come Again. Seeing as global warming has totally effected our seasons, Supersister predicted the environmental changes, whackey weather motifs and poor August sun-rays. Back then the terms carbon footprint sounded like a East London night club. Now even the politicians are getting down to problem of too much Summer sun. Yet the title of the 3rd Supersister single forewarned it all. Spooky aint it!? All three singles somehow foretold a story of the UK, nay the world!

The Video for Coffee

So, with each single release the fanbase grew and it hoped for a parent album. It didn’t come. Gut Records shelved the album “Lip Service” and people today have clearly voted for its instant release. Pop acts, especially girlbands, are often messed about by other interests that have nothing to do with the music or the acts involved. Its often put down as “record company politics” yet despite the fact of 6 years passing, its clear people still want to see some kind release of Lip Service! A lot of fans were left dissapointed and clearly still want its release.

So who are Supersister? They consist of Eleanor Phillips, Louise Fudge, and Tina Peacock. You could clearly hear on the songs themselves that they loved to dance, sing pop and were good friends with each other. They could truly belt out the hard notes without melting down the listeners eardrums ala Christina Aguilera. If you listen to Boys In the Backseat (b-side to Coffee) the girls go all “Aretha” on the feminist popditty without edging into Destiny Childs unfunny territory of Survivor. Even today they are covered. Not only was their fourth single “Just Came To Dance” swallowed up by S Club 8 but the Icelandic girlband Nylon recently covered Summer Gonna Come Again.

Supersister you have been voted by readers Don’t Stop The Pop as the act they’d most like to see the album from and by proxy perhaps this means ya the most missed pop act in recent memory. They were fun, kind and the perfect pop group. They reflected the world and the generation of pop fans the songs were aimed at! And, as illustrated above, they predicted quite a lot too! If there is any pop justice in the world Gut Records will do the right thing and secure the release of Lip Service. Or, alternatively Don’t Stop The Pop will hire an S.A.S macho Pop task force to break into the h.q of the record company and snatch Lip Service! Seriously though, Supersister you were great and are muched missed. Perhaps one day Lip Service will see the light of day and when that comes I’ll raise my Chai Latte in celebration but remember folks “never” “instant, cus he’s too quick!”.

By Robpop!
A Huge thanks to Matt and the girls!

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THE SPINNING AROUND AWARD FOR THE MOST AMAZING COMEBACK OF 2007 GOES TO

The Spinning Around Award for the most amazing comeback of 2007

Robyn

This award could have gone to no one but the Swedish singer Robyn. She achieved what was declared as 2007’s only true example of pop justice when, along with Andreas Kleerup, the song With Every Heartbeat went to no.1 in the U.K. Beforehand, the last time British top ten charts hosted a Robyn single was in 1997 with Show Me Love. As a long-term fan of Robyn, she never went away. Despite being geographically apart, I and this blog remained true to the force of pop usually importing her albums from Sweden. From her second album My Truth, to Don’t Stop the Music, the brilliant collaborations with Basement Jaxx and Christian Falk and to the stuff released under her very own label, I have always followed her career. However, I must admit that I’ve been taken aback by her amazing return. Let me explain, as a fan you always hope and expect your number 1 act to do well but when you hear girls on the bus singing the rap to Konichiwa Bitches or boys from Liverpool singing their heart out to With Every Heartbeat you have to pinch yourself. In 2007, Robyn has been selling out gigs in the UK, received glowing reviews from sources that tend to like austere rock outfits or leftfield lushies, gone to number one, worked on the Britney Spears album and been a-listed by Radio One. Its been an amazing year and thus I’ve had to do a lot pinching (ouch!). Steve Anderson of the dance outfit Brothers In Rhythm, Rent Remixed, Ryandan and Kylie Minogue’s finest musical moments told Don’t Stop The Pop that Robyn “does what she likes personally and that is ultimately the most important thing for any artist.” For Anderson, at all levels of Robyns material whether it be the “production, songs and vocals” each defines “perfection”. Clearly exposing his fan-status, he concluded that while its great to see Robyn do well he’d like to hear new material as soon as possible, “I'm so pleased she has secured a deal here and can't wait to see what she does next seeing as the album that just came out is already over 2 years old.”

The thing about Robyn is that she never strays away from the mighty pop genealogy that is genetically linked herself to everyone from The Knife, The Doors, Prince, Madonna and her Max Martin heritage. However, no two Robyn tracks will ever mirror the next and perpetually deconstructs both her genre and music itself. As such, the sound of Robyn teeters. Is she pop? Is she electro? Is she rnb? These answers I cannot know. Instead, Robyn takes your hand throughout each song, sings its story and lets the listener float into its narrative. She doesn’t dominate but neither is she passive-her album is so unlike so many out there as it is as much as your album as it is an Robyn album. Then perhaps the title of the song “With Every Heartbeat” takes on a different meaning. One of inclusive exclusivity that describes a unique bond between her, the song and its listeners whose hearts are beating along with Robyns'. Perhaps it is this connection that explains the brilliant success of With Every Heartbeat & the ascendence of Robyn…

Robyn.com
Robyn VIP Area (where you can hear a mix of Be Mine)
Robyn On The Web
The Essential Robyn Fansite
Robyn's new single Be Mine Video
Don't Stop The Pop Interview with Robyn (Part One)

Don't Stop The Pop Interview with Robyn (Part Two)
Don't Stop The Pop's First Ever Article On Robyn Nearly 3 Years Ago! (Sob!)
Buy New Robyn
Buy Old Robyn Music Here
**Click here to listen to the Girls Aloud version of
With Every Heartbeat**
Click here to listen to Jay Nortons version of With Every Heartbeat

BTW: The last in our Pop Awards will be announced very shortly where thereafter DSTP will return to its normal self!

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DONTSTOPTHEPOP INTERUPTS THE POP AWARDS FOR THE VERY SPECIAL MAMMA MIA TRAILER STARRING MERYL STREEP!

Words cannot describe how excited I am about this movie. It features Julie Walters, Meryl and Christine Baranski (of The Birdcage& The Cybil Show)! It also features Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper (swoon!), and Colin Firth (who..........plays Harry...wink wink). Watch the high definition trailer here!!!!

THE AWARD FOR BEST POP SINGLE OF 2007....

Best Pop Single of 2007

The Nominations are:

Perfecta – Miranda! & Julieta Venegas
With Every Heartbeat – Kleerup & Robyn
Beautiful Liar (Freemasons Edit) – Beyonce & Freemasons
Grace Kelly – Mika
Shine – Take That
Umbrella – Rihanna
Prisonero – Miranda!

The Winner is: Umbrella by Rihanna (Barbados)

As I don't know Rihanna very well I've turned to our very own Mary Cherry....

Song of the year? Well was there really any question about what would win this? Sure Robyn took With Every Heartbeat to the top of the UK charts, and we saw comebacks from some of pop's greatest like Kylie and No Angels, plus we got the fabulousness of MissMatch and Isabel. But none of these power divas could quite take away the powerhouse that with one word "ella" could give so much joy or cause so much irritation. The irresistible "ella ella eh eh" is the "la la la" of 2007, it's simplicity ensures that Rihanna's Umbrella is the song of the year and with a mammoth run at the top of the charts the world over, there was no doubt that it would take the title. Rihanna we salute you.

Rihanna Myspace
Rihanna Official Site

THE WINNER OF THE INTERNATIONAL ALBUM OF THE YEAR GOES TO....

International Album of the Year

The nominations are

Miranda! – El Disco tu Corazon,
Lucky Twice – Young & Clever
Miss Match – Just Push Play
Margaret Berger – Pretty Scary Silver Fairy
Marta Sanchez – Miss Sanchez
Ricki-Lee Coulter – Brand New Day

Winner: Just Push Play by MissMatch (Sweden)

MissMatch Speech:

“Is there a cooler nomination!?! We don’t think so anyway and it’s almost impossible to express the feeling of winning it!! Also it’s such a huge honour when we compete with all this Poptastic albums! We have to thank all of you who has “pushed play”!! Hopefully your bumps have shaken over and over again, and your heads have realized that a Missmatch can actually be much more fulfilling than being perfect :)

What a year!! We started of with our debut in the biggest Music-show in Sweden. Then touring with the first single to so many great cities and meeting such great fans! Then recording our new video and now releasing single number 2. To top that off, we now win not only one but TWO of the coolest awards ever! Crazy! Thank god that Bobba Pop and this blog exist! It’s made for all of us that want pop to inspire our lives. It has also made sure that people all over Europe has got to know MissMatch!!

Of course we can’t forget to thank all of you boys that we have met through the years, because you are our best source of inspiration… Hi hi! So to all of you guys out there, come and pay MissMatch a visit and who knows, it might be you that we write about in our next hit single!! :)

We can promise you all that we are going to make much more music and we hope that you will love it as much as this. We are determined to - Don..t Stop the Pop!! Love á la MissMatch"

You Tube: Breathe In/Breathe Out
Links: MissMatch, CdOn
Dontstopthepop Exclusive download of the track "Unabashed" from "Just Push Play"
DontStopthePop review of Just Push Play