Lopez Blogs

• NOTICE! Incredibly important update to the Same Difference album preview. Miss it at your peril!!
• For the first part in this series, click here...
• For part two, well you might as well click here...

You can so totally tell when Christmas is around the corner, because there is just an onslaught of new pop merchandise heading towards the stores. XO and D'Luv pretty much have the circus that is the new Take That release covered (love Yuri's comment - it's very blue! CLASSIC!), while Mike PTA (the new Harper Valley?!) takes time out from his busy Boyz whoring schedule to bring us the diva classic releases this festive season (my fave? The one where tina turner looks like she has a serious case of botty worms!). And Auspop is pretty much the most reliable place on the web for antipodean releases. Plus they like Same Difference. Ergo I adore them. However, here is what is and/or should be happening in a store near you in the coming weeks (if record companies weren't run by complete nutters. Which they obviously are!)...

• I can forgive McFly a lot of things and luckily covering a song by Evil Harlot Who Cannot Be Named is one of them. Their deliciously winking, almost vaudevillian cabaret romp through I Kissed A Girl is a shuffling two step beat corker of an interpretation that will work nicely on Christmas Party mix cds, and make an excellent flip side to their forthcoming single "Down Goes Another One". Now would it kill them to release a cover of "Sweet Transvestite" for Hallowe'en?
• If there was any justice in the world, Sophie Ellis Bextor would have had a massive early Autumn smash with the marvy Heartbreak Makes Me A Dancer and would be preparing On and Off as her festive contribution from a greatest hits album. And as I'm in a covers mood, she should totally put her bluegrassy acoustic cover of Jolene on the flip for added appeal. This "Beautiful People" soundtrack addition showcases SEB-Jones lovely voice and just drips with pathos and hurt. Ah Sophie, why England abandoned you much like they did Rachel Stevens (oh don't get me started! Her second album was near perfection!) is way beyond my powers of comprehension. This is another corking interpretation of hers to stand alongside One Way Or Another, Physical and, er, that other one she did...
• Talking of abandoned pop stars on the Beautiful People soundtrack, The Feeling have not one, not two but three songs on there! Three! It's practically a new album! Of course, two songs are billed as "Dan Gillespie Sells" but they are so drenched in Feeling type piano and harmonies that it is like saying H&Claire was a complete reversal of the Steps sound that made them famous. She's Gone is the Hall and Oates cover that was on the flip of the criminally ignored Join With Us single, while the theme tune (Beautiful People Theme) and another new tune (confusingly called Beautiful People, with a lovely middle 8 refrain of "Don't let them go, dreams may be foolish but don't let them go...") are just exactly what you would expect from Dan - solid choruses, beautifully blended harmonies and so darn catchy they should come with antibiotics. Perfect additional tracks for my suggested fifth single Won't Go Away...
• I'm a little ashamed to admit it but the track High School Musical (from the third in the movie series) stands perfectly alongside Britannia High's Start of Something as an utterly delightful flashback to the halcyon days of S Club and All*Stars perky pop that I just can't get out of my head. And honestly, I really don't want to...
• Lily Allen is finally back. Although GWB was a brilliant way to pass the time while a new official single was forthcoming, Everyone's At It simply can't wait til new year for a release. It is slightly more electro (but only a dusting) than her debut album, but this isn't really a departure from anything else she's ever done and there is no need to depart because frankly she does it so well. Yes, there are some Alanis sized lyrical clangers ("your daughter's depressed get her straight on the prozac/little do you know she already takes coke) and i'm not convinced the world needs a don't do prescription drugs anthem, but i'm just so darned happy for Lily to be back and kick Evil Harlot Who Cannot Be Named's arse from her back to the street corner she came from. Job done.