In 2005, pop changed forever. Pay-TV won history with their track Refrain Refrain. It was the first time a non-political political pop song appeared on the stage of a bewildered audience. Indeed, listening to its lyrics Refrain Refrain is first pop song in history that one could say is has moments of autopoiesis. Just as have remixes remixed themselves into a wonderful climax of oblivion, Pay-TV collapsed modernity, celebrity and western culture. This was the true sound of the underground and as such Sweden baulked at the trio when it was time to select a group to represent the country for that years Eurovision Song Contest. However by this time, Pay-TV had destroyed the lines of standardisation and the pop song was never the same again. We’d all seen the satire and truth that Refrain Refrain had consequently exposed and the aperture altered pop forever.
Since this moment, they arguably won Eurovision despite never appearing at the contest itself. A year later they won the Nobel prize for fashionable decorum and each singer achieved a Phd on the ethics of subjective pop rebellions in Spain, Germany and Sweden. Pay-Tv as a franchise can rival the likes of Opera, the oil industry and they bank-rolled the spending debts of God and Vishnu. Last year they considered re-recording their ode to the Blarite world “Miss Capitalist” in Mandarin for the Chinese government to consume and re-employ as a part of the global dominance of Beijing.
Come 2007 they are just about to launch their long-awaited first album. Today, DontStopthePop can offer a very very very special exclusive and legal download but only for a limited time. This version of Fashion Report is from their new album and far more electrolush than the original. For sure, it’s a remix but you won’t get it find it on any CD. Not even the Cd single includes the mix! You’ll get this no where else but here……
Sometimes some singers just stop you in your tracks. Jay Norton is one of those singers....And what a way to celebrate the success of With Every Heartbeat with an amazing cover.......
This previous week or so has seen my normal computer decide to disco strut off to Ibiza and simply crash out, my body collapse to the floor and generally being ordered to sit out the rest of August in bed with loads of lovely legal drugs (thanks docs!). Oh did I forgot to mention that I am moving out of London? So yeah its pretty much a very stressful time in la casa at the moment. Sorry about the heart-to-heart but it hopefully explains why I've not been around as much as I usually am. Enough with such emotional dithering! Let us move on already! In music, things are entering what one could describe as an renaissance! Or "Pop-jouissance" as readers of Jacque Lacan would say.
From Robyn (UK no.1) to Monrose (German no.1) and over to new and exciting acts like Isabel Guzman and B-tween, one cannot deny that there’s certainly something in summer sunshine. However all these acts are girls and none hail from the U.K. This is so not right is it?
Well, on the anniversary of this blogs' article on With Every Heartbeat, DontStopthePop proudly announces a British talent that I think must be signed for his talent is so exquisite and so rich that it would be criminal not to see Jay Norton on a major record company by the die is caste. In other words, sign this man now!!!
Jay's live cover of the song
Along with Isabel Guzman, Jay Norton is definitely one to watch out for. Tracing Robyn and Tyler James, Jay brings something totally new and unexpected to the field of music. Take his interpretation of With Every Heartbeat. Currently riding high in the charts under the auspices of Robyn’s delicate vocals, the original slithers between a girlfriends plea, surrender, joy, nothingness, utopia and desperation.
I hate to break it down to gender but with Jay, the message of the song completely alters. Suddenly the ballad becomes unhinged, raw, heartbroken and, rather than Robyn’s amazing “over-wroughtness” Jay promises severity and a sense of future sobriety instead of the secure closure that we feel in Robyn’s original. Its as if Jay Norton’s epic vocals have eroded Robyn’s sense of something and has ripped it apart while at the same time ensuring his lovers happiness. To put it in other words, with Robyn you feel as if she is slowly smiling and telling herself, that despite the hurt, “she don’t look back”. Robyn is gonna be Ok! However in Jays take, there is no recovery and the heart is still broken by the end. The boy is broken and sacrificed.
When I first saw Jay Norton perform this I was stunned and contacted him. The next day (er, today!) he’d recorded an mp3 of his version of With Every Heartbeat and has very kindly allowed DontStopthePop share this amazing version with you tonight! Just as Robyn herself completely changed Since You’ve Been Gone on Radio 1 the other day, Jay has done something quite beautiful to an already epic pop song. Andreas Kleerup, the man behind With Every Heartbeat has heard Jay’s cover and has already given the thumbs up.
So what makes me a tiny bit more proud about Jay than say perhaps than I would do otherwise?
He’s from the same town as me-Liverpool! Just 19, Jay is unsigned at the moment but as you’ll hear on his myspace player the kid likes to bounce about with styles, sounds and genres. His song This is Not Real Love it’s a beautiful electro dance ballad of sharps and reminds me of Robyn’s most sensitive moments. Then on When You’re Cheating, Jay simply sits with his piano, some stunning vocals and just allows his anger peacefully erupt into rage. Such is the strength of his demo’s, you almost kid yourself and think your listening to 2008’s Brit/Grammy winner of Best Album. Well, perhaps you are. Pop readers of the blog will love his bloody brilliant tribute to fellow Scouse act Dead Or Alive on his saucy cover of You Spin Me Round (Like A Record) which Jay has updated as Pants Down.
Ahem.
This song/mp3 is so fresh it was only just recorded today people so enjoy! Jay, thank you for allowing readers of DontStopthepop this amazing mp3. Fingers crossed the next couple of months are gonna be your year! I also think its a major credit to the songwriters behind With Every Heartbeat, that the track is taking off on a life of its own in different modulations and corners of the UK. Well done Robyn/Andreas (again!).
Critical links: Jay Norton Myspace Andreas Kleerup myspace Robyn Official Website
Coming up: Ok, so DontStopthePop should be back to its normal self soonish! Can I just say pop is sooooooo good at the moment!
"This is the Dontstopthepop report! Pay-TV are back!"
