Lopez Blogs

For the first part in this series, click here...

To be honest, I used to get my annual tinglings for Christmas when the red starbucks cups appeared in stores (remember last year when people sent me their red cup photos? Aces!) I would dust off Love, Actuall and Beauty and the Beast: An Enchanted Christmas and start playing Girls Aloud Christmastry cd (anyone else think the ace new single sounds like the track on there that goes "bish bash bosh wooo, you give me something i never get from santa claus"? No? Just me then)... This year, while I'm not actually going to get my christmas crazy on until at least the Florida holiday (Nov 22nd holiday date fans), I'm still intruiged and fascinated by the whole seasonal promotional push that popstars commence in September. Here are some of the latest updates:

McFly wisely followed my advice (read: did the sensible thing which had nothing to do with my advice) and released a non-free album giveaway track as their second official Radio:Active single. Lies is still a deliciously jaunty kiss off romp that sits somewhere between the guitar riffs of Garth Brooks 'The Thunder Rolls' and honkytonk piano of Scissor Sisters 'She's My Man', but it's the lovely lovely b-side I'm currently lusting after. While the world patiently awaits the Dannii/Kylie duet of this particular Abba song, McFly present a rather lovely acoustic reading of The Winner Takes It All. I'm always wary when other acts tackle the genius of Abba, but McFly give the song a genuine emotional fraughtness to match the lyrics. Totally worth the price of the cd single... It sets up the Radio:Active campaign nicely for the festive season, and I assume that something EPIC like Last Song will be a near Christmas single.

Quite rightly, it will be a big uptempo party in the world of pop this festive season. Girls Aloud have made The Promise to be shaking their respective cooties, er sorry - booties, and Sugababes are bringing us the Girls to bop along to. Add to that a new single that hopefully comes with appropriate spelling for the territory from Britney (WomaniSer) that sounds like it will be upbeat, and the fact that all are officially not out til late October/early November, and they will have us bopping through the Christmas period. It worked for Steps in 1998 with Tragedy. That was around for AGES!

One girl group that hasn't really taken off (yet) in the UK that i have recently and belatedly become attached to is The Veronicas. Shame because their album Hooked Up is full of punky pop-dance gems. However one song that would fit an office Christmas perfectly is the delightful Revenge is Sweeter (Than You Ever Were). It starts off with this restrained acoustic vocal, then builds up with drum beats, hand claps and finally then gets wild with some electro beepy stuff going on, while the vocal and music crescendos to a swirling disco epic/ Brilliant. I may be obsessed. About 3 years later than everyone else.

William of Young (who Mark Frith - former Heat editor - says is his least favourite celebrity. Boo you Mark whore) has a rather restrained lead in to his latest album in the form of the rather elegant but sometimes forgettable (not that I think the song is forgettable, more i sometimes forget to play it if that makes any sense) Changes which is finally out next week (like Switch It On, it seems to have been around MONTHS before it's official release). However, the album sampler that did the rounds recently showed that he has the uptempo-ish Won't Look Down hidden up his perfectly tailored sleeves. Combine this with I Won't Give Up which is produced by the Freemasons and the closest thing to (crazy) disco on his new album. If this pairing isn't a christmas AA single, then I will have to give William a firm spanking. Ooo, actually.... :P

There is not much of a boyband onslaught this year (though frankly I still think The Killers - new single Human out soon - and Kaiser Chiefs [Never Miss A Beat] are more boyband than McFly) until the return of Take That in November (and the Britannia High soundtrack just before that). Boyzone have returned though - now, I always preferred TT to the zone, but I did like some of their tunes. Their comeback single Love You Anyway seems to be perfectly, well, Boyzone. It's not particularly flashy or dancey but it certainly has that sing a long pop element to it. I guess I expected something more spectacular. Oh well...

Other "genres" launching their christmas offensive very soon:

XFactor ~ Same Difference, Leon Jackson, Rhyddian and even the dinner lady from last year all have debut singles and albums out in October and November. Plus Leona Lewis has that boring Forgive Me out... sigh...
Popera ~ yes classically trained pop-opera boyband are back with songs like Closest Thing To Crazy and Chasing Cars. Meanwhile ex G4-er Jonathan Ansell has an opera-pop album out with songs like Who Wants To Live Forever and If You're Not The One on there. Glorious...

Back tomorrow with a catching up with the Killers post, something Priscilla Queen of the Desert related and then something else, possibly a William Young post...