SORAYA....QUEEN OF CLUBS/LA REINA DEL DISCO!

I love Soraya. Always have. So this is biased! Biased to the roof! I've loved even her interesting cover albums. She always delivered turbo pop. She always supplied pumping anthems decked out in summer disco cheese. Seeing her collaborator Kate Ryan take a small break, Soraya has taken to a new album to up the ante and sprint towards the Queen of Clubs crown. And, I think she's made a pretty strong claim with her latest longplayer, Dreamer.

Dreamer

The title track. Written by Paul Brandoli and Natalie Gauci. Yes Natalie Gauci! The winner of the 2007 series of Australian Idol. The title track is a clear statement of what the album contains. This is not a repeat performance of her previous album. Soraya sounds matured and lyrically it sounds like it too. Not actually the strongest of songs but I can understand why it's the title track and the first song on the album. It is the song that defines the album and the new direction for Soraya. 4/5

Runaway

I love this song. Written by Lucie Silvas and Steve Robson, Runaway is a simple slice of pop bliss. A big baseline reminds me somewhat of a eurovision version of Kylie's All The Lovers. 5/5

Give Me You

Here Soraya drenches herself in club sublimity and sublimation. If you like Iio of New York (Rapture), you will love this uber cool anthem. If Dannii was to release a second Neon Nights album for 2010 I'd imagine this song would be on it. 5/5

Ticking All The Boxes

Soraya goes a bit schlager on Ticking All The Boxes and as such we see Soraya take a few steps back in the sense that this was a feature of her previous release. Indeed, this song could have been released by any "Swedish Idol" starlet. You can almost imagine this being performed at the semi-final stages at Melodifestivalen. 3/5

I Got You

Now this is far more like it. Starts off all gospel-esque and then picks up into an upstanding uplifting anthem. Perhaps the best track on the album, I Got You is incredibly camp. If Mariah Carey did a turn-around and released a big ole' club track, it would sound something like I Got You. 5/5

You've Got The Music

And here is the song that should have been on Donna Summer's last album! There were also rumours it was going to be a duet on the album. But the disco legend is nowhere to be heard on the release. Its pretty anthemic but it's the sort of thing Madonna and Kylie did some years ago. 3/5

Electric Girl

Now this is a lot better. Incredibly hardcore, this is for the lads (and one Therese Granvkvist) strutting their stuff around Vauxhall. Featuring the club maestro Beduk, Electric Girl is almost anything Madonna's done, but on acid. Soraya is incredibly comfortable in the realm of pop neons and she plays around with disco electrons like it's second nature to her. This is very good dance music and squeezing this into tangible commercial pop trinkets makes tracks like Electric Girl delicious.

Twilight

Okay this is pure europop at its finest. Scan the credits and yup, its no suprise to find Hanne Sorvaag there. Twilight sees Soraya taking that club crown off of her head and munching down on that slice of purest teeth-rotting pop cheesecake. If she was ever to return to Eurovision, this is the song she'd use. On repeat listens, this euphoric tune is a bit of a grower but I do feel Soraya is playing it safe with this song as it is definitely ground she's covered before on Sin Miedo, her previous album. 2/5

Live Your Dreams

Featuring the legend that is Antoine Clamaran, Soraya immediately and firmly jams that club crown right back on her peroxided bonce . Every inch the anthem, Live Your Dreams rightly deserves to be the hit it is becoming. I can even see Soraya do an acoustic torch ballad version of this, perhaps proving the universality of the song. 5/5

In My Blood

WOAH! The club slicks of In My Blood are so ferosh. For sure, it doesn't scream clear hit single but it is the best club track song on the album. Perhaps the best club song to come out of Spain this year. There's something about the bouncy beats, the clicky irresistible baseline and the snarly vocal delivery make this a very delicious blue song put together by two Norwegian lads. It nearly upstages I Got You as the track of the album but In My Blood doesn't make me want to hug everyone on the street, which the former track does in buckets.

Close To Me-featuring Wally Lopez

This is a joke track. I don't know what to make of Close to Me. I want it to be an obtuse but clever cover like Dannii's brilliant reworking of Coconut. But Close To Me doesn't even sound finished. It is a disaster of a song. There is an instrument used in the song that does its very best to clash with the melody. Horrendous. They should have capped the album at track ten. 0/5

Smash Hits: I Got You, In My Blood, Runaway, Give Me You, Live Your Dreams, Dreamer
Maybe: Electric Girl, Twilight, You've Got The Music, Ticking All The Boxers
Miss: Close To Me

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