UNIMPORTANT EDIT: Oh dear Whitney Houston :( And to think I was saving her to lead off the August fizzypop chronicles in style :( As a massive fan I'm quite sad!
I am SO not feeling July as I am an anomaly. I do not "do" the sun. It is too hot and bright for my delicate disposition. I prefer to draw the curtains ("drapes" for my american compatriots) and sip iced tea (that is only me being pretentious. It's really the cheap tesco diet lemonade). If I was being really pretentious I would say I then listen to depressing music like The Smiths or The Cure. Everyone who visits here would know that to be a lie, as I am more likely to be found in a darkened room bopping to Same Difference or Industry, or pumping fist over the dirty ads at the back of the latest Attitude (I jest of course. Ahem). To top off the outpouring of love I have for these summer months, a sceptic pipe has leaked at work so I am literally swimming in my and others own plop and piddle. And am not even allowed to go home. I draw the line if a used sanny pad floats past :/
Clearly, that is all utterly charming so I will get onto the musical musts for the month tout de suit. Tootle pip.
MUSICAL MUSTS FOR JULY:
01 - Preston, Dressed To Kill: I always knew Preston Ordinary Boy had it in him - a brilliant pop career. Under the ska overtones of most OB tracks lay the heart of true pop musicians focused on melody and catchy lyrics. This shines through on solo Preston's synth charged electrolicious debut single where his voice sounds glorious and the 80s vibe still comes across as unique and quirky. Love the middle eight where Preston positively purrs "you make me come..." before pausing just a fraction of a second to add "...undone". The whole single is a sex kitty kat that has been sprayed in kitty kat juice. Ergo entirely astonishing :)
02 - The Baseballs, Umbrella: I wrote about this on Sunday so I really don't have that much more to say about it. The genius of this type of group is that they take songs you love/know; deconstruct them and rebuild into their own genre. See also The Puppini Sisters (40s big band) and G4 (popera). This is still mega by the way :)
03 - Anders Fernette, Hungry Eyes: Ah my favourite song from Dirty Dancing (apart from the bit where they go "1-2-3 cha cha cha, hey! Where's my frame? Where's my pleasing arms?" Love) given a dance makeover and some tip top Swedish pop production values. It's all very ace indeed. Tragically if Westlife came back with something as brillo and enjoyable as this, they would be slated. Life is so unfair sometimes :/
04 - Dolly Rockers, Gold Digga: Channelling the spunk of Bananarama, the sass of the Spice Girls, a dash of Vanilla and even the lyrical genius of the Arctic Monkeys and you have the Dollies. Their first single proper (criminally not Je Suis...) is all feisty, taking a pop at those lazy girls who just coast through life on being married to someone famous. The video had better be amazing is all I can say :)
05 - Star Pilots, Higher: Well they keep churning out the dance orientated, smash hits don't they and in general the world keeps ignoring them. Not entirely true, but I can't help but feel if these songs were performed by big busted women in bikinis then they would be a lot more omniscient than they are now. Evacuate the dancefloor indeedy.
06 - Danny, Set Your Body Free: Let's ignore the frankly ludicrous fact that silly Danny released the tepid Emely as his third single in Sweden because that is positively bonkers. This track (the old Avenue song) is far more uplifting, danceable, paletable and screams "international pop hit" from the very first second. Some people, eh?!
07 - Britney, Kill The Lights: I can't have Radar as her fourth single because i allocated it as her fourth single from Blackout. Lazy bitch. And honestly, I'm as shocked as the next person at her "sexy horse" video. God forbid the directors cut leaks where she is wanking off a stallion :/ So i'll focus on this song instead which is about paparazzi. Not the Lady Gaga single.
08 - Sugababes, You On A Good Day: I'll continue mining the latest not as terrible as everyone thinks album even if no one else can be arsed! This (if paired with their recent cover of Teardrops) would be a nice addition to the charts with it's stomping Northern Soul production values and lyrics about the erstwhile partner. Men eh? Can't live with them, etc.
09 - Girls Aloud, Rolling Back The Rivers: I could have picked any of a number of tracks from the fine OOC album, but settled on this mid paced delight. Mainly for the aaa-ooos that proliferate it. Now don't get me started on the Cheryl solo album/one year off debacle because my ears will start to steam with rage and impotence...
10 - Lily Allen, Who'd Have Known: Well thank god she lost the awful grammar that marred the title of the demo version floating around last year! The official next singles are F*** You/22 but I am in love with the more loved up Lily trying to lure her man into the sack, all set to a tune that's a bit reminiscent of Shine. All in all, it's quite lovely.
11 - Anastacia, Defeated: I'm still trying to work out why she let Mary J Blige be on the cover of her latest album. Once i'm done working that out, i'll start on pondering why i like this entirely generic mid tempo r'n'b groove when surely there is much better out there. I'm clearly settling here, but sometimes that's enough to get you through the next 3 minutes...
12 - Daniel Schuhmaker, Anything But Love: Mein Gott! following on from the musical rape of Hallelujah by both British and Dutch X Factor winners, and the entirely generic but still brilliant winners single by Kevin Borg, comes the best entirely generic but still almost brilliant winners single from Germany. It's they type of big booming ballad that I sort of wish Mariah Carey would remember she can do quite well once in a while, only everyone would moan about how she never moves forward if she did that. Pop - it's a delicate balance isn't it?
13 - Erik Hassle, Don't Bring Flowers: Well flap me sideways and bugger me gently. Music Week informs me (not personally, I just read it) that this generally incredible dark booming 80s synth track will be the first single in the UK, with the equally genius Hurtful being released closer to Christmas. I bow to their wisdom because while Hurtful gets all the press, this is equally bonza and actually there is not one dud track on the dudes album. The hair still bothers me though :)
14 - Paolo Nutini, Coming Up Easy: Sunny Side Up is convincing me less and less with each listen which is quite distressing for me as I was in total adoration of These Streets. This track staves off the diminishing love somewhat as it's quite a nice motown style tune which sounds quite nice in a car with the windows down in the summer... The boy can write a decent lyric still though :)
15 - Leon Jackson, All In Good Time: All in all, as I come to the point where I have exhausted all possible single releases for poor underrated Leon (this is his 5th on my "chronicles") I have decided that perhaps Leon was too much like a male Vonda Shepard for the world. He could probably get a job singing songs in a bar to lawyers who see dancing babies. This sounds like an insult, but believe me it's not. All hail Leon (no a, hence no record company money invested in him).
16 - The Gossip, Heavy Cross: I'm all over the new Gossip album like a rash. The lead off single which, yes, I'm a bit behind on, sounds like a montage of all the great 80s songs performed by a time travelling Debbie Harry. It's utterly stomping and a great track to convince you to buy the epic and culturally significant Music For Men. End of sermon. amen.
17 - Franz Ferdinand, Can't Stop Feeling: I only sort of remembered that the Franz were still going when I heard this new single on Radio one t'other day. Which sort of speaks volumes for their marketing campaign doesn't it? This is an entirely decent single from their latest album yet no one even knows it exists. Incredible.
18 - Kaiser Chiefs, Addicted to Drugs: Ditto everything I said above, but with a Robert Palmer sampling chorus and the sad news that they won't be working with the one and only Sophie Ellis-Bextor Hyphen Jones. :(
19 - The Killers, Dustland Fairytale: Has my love for the Killers diminshed since they were one of the three groups I fell in love with in 2004 (along with Maroon 5 and the Scissters)? Not a jot. I still find them effortlessly entertaining no matter what musical genre they attack and no matter what B-Flo chooses to dress up like. This is less instant than Alex Rybak's Fairytale but a bit more pleasing over all.
20 - Keane, Disco 2000: Keane are very good at performing almost note for note cover versions that don't deviate much from the original. This can be quite good, when they add a bit of rollicking piano in there for good measure, but a bit boring otherwise overall. This is a perfunctory cover of the Pulp classic that makes me want to listen to the Pulp classic. Oh :(
21 - The Feeling, This Is Love: The Feeling boys do better than Keane at cover versions, but they honed their skills in an austrian ski lodge for a few years so have probably had more practice at it. Dan sounds positively filthy as he growls some of the lyrics and if I weren't so enamoured with Richard right now i would lust after him all over again. A decent little tune to keep me going til the third album arrives.
See you Sunday with pics from gay pride, London Sty-leeeee...
