Hey all! If your reading this-hi! I am still here! I've been on holiday for a bit. Returned a few days ago and I had no idea what to blog about so I thought I'd do the final pop news for 2008. Usually as the year comes to an end, the world of pop is filled with drivel such as X Factor winners releasing trite covers of once brilliant pop songs and Cliff Richard medleys somehow dominating the radio waves. Not now! Not December 2008! This year it seems the place is abuzz with lots of pop-deliciousness. For every dull Alex winning X Factor in Britain you've got the exciting discovery of the Melodifestivalen acts in Sweden or the birth of the new girlgroup Queensberry in Germany.
Don't get me wrong. I like Alex. I think she can sing but the only interesting things about X Factor this year were the dodgy appearances put in by some American singers, Ruth Lorenzo being absolutely amazing and the awful treatment of Dannii Minogue. If a show depends on the bullying of a judge as its running narrative and the ever so shocking mimed performances by Ms.Spears you know that its just a bit shit. The show simply isn't fun as it should be.
Thankfully pop has the form of Clea and LoveShy. & they've returned. Thank fuck! Well kind of! Thanks to their managers Denise & Simon, the release of previously unheard material is now available online. Rather than download Alexandra's new single, go and check out the poptastic single Power Of Music. The subject of the song is about the ability of music to unite the world. Forget United Nations, Gordon Brown and the credit crunch. Just download LoveShy's Power Of Music and all problems will be consequently lifted from ones shoulders.
While your there you might as well as download their single that was so nearly pressed: Gotta Love For You. Its a mighty fine cover and comes with a WideBoys Remix. As you listen to their Jomanda cover, one can actually build-up a small LoveShy album. If they'd continued to release more of this quality pop-dance stuff, I believe Booty Luv would have had a great set of rivals in the form of the LoveShy girls.
Yeah I am biased but I loved Loveshy. Sigh. But you know what...they're great & these batch of releases symbolize that. They really refused to stop the pop-even after their demise! These girls seem to have really loved giving us pop lovers what we wanted: Pop! You see and hear that with the release of Trinity but the other stuff on Itunes from the girls illustrates that too if not more so. Well, step back in time to when LoveShy were Clea! They had a little song called I Surrender. It was anthemic and became a single for Kate Ryan this year. Clea released I Surrender in Sweden but nowhere else. Until now. Not only have the LoveShy tracks come out but so has the I Surrender Mini-EP.
With all this pop brilliance I might be in pop heaven! Yet the girls have given us one extra little gem which truly is like the bonus present one finds after the christmas tree. The icing on the cake. The taking of the biscuit: the Dance Remix EP is pure pop bliss. It comes with remixes of Stuck in the Middle and Lucky Like That. All pretty much unreleased, every damn remix is special. You have the Cutfather and Joe mix of Stuck In The Middle. Cutfather and Joe! They're legends! There's also ODB on another remix, a trancetrashtastic remix of Lucky Like That (The Floorshaker Remix) and the ubercool Pool mix of the same said song. All of which making the Clea/Loveshy Itunes experience highly fabulous and bad for my credit card. Its all there on Itunes! And available internationally too!
Staying within the realm of Clea, one of their key songs Sprung has been covered by Queensberry (listen here). Its looking Antonella will be the girl in the band. You see this year, the final member of the band was decided not by telephone votes but by cd sales. Germans, Austrians and Swiss had the choice of purchasing three versions of Queensberry's first album Volume One. Each album included vocals by different contestants: Antonella, Kay-Kay and Patricia. The one with the most sales goes in the band. Simply really. I am thinking the remaining two can team up with another Popstars contestant and create a new trio ala Bisou/Clea/Liberty X. The cover of Sprung isn't bad. Not as good as the two originals by Clea but its worth checking out. Antonella doesn't quite say the lyric "smell of eggs cooking in my kitchen" properly and instead it sounds like she's saying "the smelly bags cookin in me kitchen". Yummy. The Queensberry album is full with covers but taken altogether, its a fine body of work.
Soraya of Spain has a new song out on Itunes especially recorded for the compilation album Fama! A Bailar! The song, Hasta El Final, is a camp re-working of Fame & well worth purchasing.
Isabel Guzman is currently finishing her new album as I type and the first proper debut single should be with us by March!
Robyn wrapped up her seminal year with a beautiful performance of Be Mine and With Every Heartbeat at the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony (see here). To me it sounds like she's putting this period to an end. And what a great way to tie it all up. It seems like a millennium ago that Robyn premiered the song back on SVT circa January 2005! (See here). What a journey!
Showing posts with label Clea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clea. Show all posts
ITS POP NEWS!-THE LAST ONE FOR 2008!-THE RETURN OF LOVESHY/CLEA!
KATE RYAN COVERS CLEA!! (and its a good one!)
So you know when I went wild over I Surrender a few years ago? You know when this blog stated that, in the world of pop, Clea were always ahead of the game. Pop frontrunners! Pop Pioneers! Even winners of the very special award for "not stopping the pop". Way before their time and all that? I even wrote up a little pop essay on their ability, and down right tenacity, to keep firm in their pop loving ways and give us great hyperbolic anthems (read here if ya like). Well! The pop legend that is Kate Ryan has honoured Clea by covering I Surrender on her latest album Free (which you can hear here). Which is completely understandable seeing as the Clea original was the best thing since sliced bread.
Its track no.3 which means it might be a single. I only presume this cos in the past tracks which come third always seem to be singles especially in the world of pop. Not a scientific fact to be sure but I am sure there's a Phd out there on the subject and results of such a study will probably find it tends to be the 3rd tracks which are often or not singles. And yes i am being side-tracked. Right! I am also very excited about this! (as you might be able to tell by the fact I am ranting on). Why? Because I loved I Surrender, I love Clea and I love Kate Ryan. It sounds like she hasn't done that much to the original which was released over 2 years ago now. The time between the two songs reveal perhaps how, dare I say it, evolutionary those Clea girls were. And they still are in their present monikers of LoveShy!
By the by, the rest of Kate Ryan album sounds utterly amazing (It even includes a duet with DSTP legend Soraya for effing sake!). Plus the front cover is Kate Ryan wearing left-over bits from a disco mirror ball which has to be simply perhaps the greatest album sleeve of 2008. So what have we learnt? Clea were well before their time. 2 Years in fact! Trinity is a great pop album and Kate Ryan knows her pop anthems.
GOLDEN DELICIOUS-FIRST REVIEW! (The worlds first electroclashgar girlband!)
Whats with all these fabulous girlbands from Sweden releasing amazing pop at the same time? Caracola, Sister Love and Golden Delicious: its like three buses coming all at once! Feel the GirlbandFever! Indeed, special footnote time: Emma and Gita both attended the same school as one of the Caracola girls! However Golden Delicious are very different to Caracola & Sister Love. Golden Delicious are more electro than their Swedish "sister-bands". Who are they? Well they consist of Gita, Emma and Sofia and they teamed up with the CenterCourt and NoJokes Production group to create some great songs to look forward to this 2008. The production team previously worked with Darin, Dr.Albarn, Clea(!) and Part Six. PopRoyalty! So on with the review!
One Step Ahead-This is a Work in Progress song and has been dubbed the "diss song" which pretty much explains what it is about. It begins with an amazing throbbing baseline that wraps around the first lyric "First of all-I look so fucking good-but I can't say the same about you". Yes, this is one of the bitchiest girlband tracks that exists in pop. Yes, thats a swear word. Yes, its very very fierce. At the moment, its just in demo form but the second verse is said to include the ripping "All the guys are making fun of you and some even call you a whore. Not even your man defends you-he says he's only with you cos you let him in ya back door". WOOOOOOOAH! Yes a mile away from Caracola's bubbly Smiling In Love...
Still On The Run-This is an amazing pop track. Unlike the above track this is on their myspace so check it out! Dripping in trance this anthem takes you to the balearic beats that I've not heard since Mel C charted at no.1 with her only good song I Turn To You. Have a listen to the track to remind yourself of its brilliance. The label AATW would love to release Still On The Run in the U.K! Looking at the major successes of Cascada and September, Still On The Run has the potential to be absolutely huge here. A great great great euphoric pop song.
Ride of Your Life-This is the new single. This one is for all those passengers lost in the madness of the new terminal 5 at Heathrow. It should definitely be played while British Airways planes taxi to the runway. Again, following in the trend set by Still On The Run Ride of Your Life is dripping with quirky lyrics bounced along by a dreamy melody. If Dannii Minogue wanted to have her comeback single it would hopefully sound like this. Check out the video here.
Still On The Run (Electro Version)-Now this is a slightly different version to the on their myspace and the one I discuss above. This is more like a crazed-up version of Robyn's Whos That Girl. What I mean is the electro version could be played at Ghetto in London. Its less trancy/poppy and more electroclash with shades of schlager underpinning the entire shebang. Odd? I know! Electroclash and schlager...electroclashlagar! Yes! Perhaps Golden Delicious are the worlds electroclashgar girlband! Woot!
I'll Never Let You Go-And the ballad. This is a beautiful song! It reminds me of Britneys Everytime and Kylie's Bittersweet Goodbye. Dreamy..
In conclusion, Golden Delicious are a fine pop group to watch out for this 2008 and 2009. New and unbound they've got a bright future ahead of them. The album is promising to be a great, yes delicious, set of pop songs. Its also another fine example of the excellent pop writing currently coming out of Sweden at the moment. Please, please please check out their myspace and support them! If you like Kylie, Lena P, Linda, Clea, Caracola and Sister Love you'll Golden Delicious. Its early days yet and they've produced some irresistible pop songs which makes G-D certainly an act to watch out for this year.
One Step Ahead-This is a Work in Progress song and has been dubbed the "diss song" which pretty much explains what it is about. It begins with an amazing throbbing baseline that wraps around the first lyric "First of all-I look so fucking good-but I can't say the same about you". Yes, this is one of the bitchiest girlband tracks that exists in pop. Yes, thats a swear word. Yes, its very very fierce. At the moment, its just in demo form but the second verse is said to include the ripping "All the guys are making fun of you and some even call you a whore. Not even your man defends you-he says he's only with you cos you let him in ya back door". WOOOOOOOAH! Yes a mile away from Caracola's bubbly Smiling In Love...
Still On The Run-This is an amazing pop track. Unlike the above track this is on their myspace so check it out! Dripping in trance this anthem takes you to the balearic beats that I've not heard since Mel C charted at no.1 with her only good song I Turn To You. Have a listen to the track to remind yourself of its brilliance. The label AATW would love to release Still On The Run in the U.K! Looking at the major successes of Cascada and September, Still On The Run has the potential to be absolutely huge here. A great great great euphoric pop song.
Ride of Your Life-This is the new single. This one is for all those passengers lost in the madness of the new terminal 5 at Heathrow. It should definitely be played while British Airways planes taxi to the runway. Again, following in the trend set by Still On The Run Ride of Your Life is dripping with quirky lyrics bounced along by a dreamy melody. If Dannii Minogue wanted to have her comeback single it would hopefully sound like this. Check out the video here.
Still On The Run (Electro Version)-Now this is a slightly different version to the on their myspace and the one I discuss above. This is more like a crazed-up version of Robyn's Whos That Girl. What I mean is the electro version could be played at Ghetto in London. Its less trancy/poppy and more electroclash with shades of schlager underpinning the entire shebang. Odd? I know! Electroclash and schlager...electroclashlagar! Yes! Perhaps Golden Delicious are the worlds electroclashgar girlband! Woot!
I'll Never Let You Go-And the ballad. This is a beautiful song! It reminds me of Britneys Everytime and Kylie's Bittersweet Goodbye. Dreamy..
In conclusion, Golden Delicious are a fine pop group to watch out for this 2008 and 2009. New and unbound they've got a bright future ahead of them. The album is promising to be a great, yes delicious, set of pop songs. Its also another fine example of the excellent pop writing currently coming out of Sweden at the moment. Please, please please check out their myspace and support them! If you like Kylie, Lena P, Linda, Clea, Caracola and Sister Love you'll Golden Delicious. Its early days yet and they've produced some irresistible pop songs which makes G-D certainly an act to watch out for this year.
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