Lopez Blogs

Christmas is coming - the goose is getting fat! Ah the festive season is a mere 3 months away. Yes of course it's far too early to be getting into that seasonal frame of mind, but that doesn't mean that people aren't planning ahead. It's the most important time of year (seemingly) for record labels and artists with the biggest releases planned to compete with the X Factor winner for the Christmas number one (and actually the bigger sales that the holidays bring). That will all be very exciting in due course but really 90 days til the big day this year means just 90 days til I fly to Las Vegas for Christmas and New Year! Hurrah! And prior to that I have Gran Canaria to fit in :P And prior to that I have to finish today's blog about the music flooding the market this week :)

WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE THIS WEEK:

• Bah. Not quite out in time for Christmas true, but one of my fave groups Maroon 5 have been squirrelled away in Switzerland working hard on their 3rd album. To positively titillate and delight the senses, the boys have released a little preview of the album on youtube. Notice a topless Adam at 22seconds :P (Love how the fadeout sounds a little like the dramatic endings in Lost!) They've been fairly quiet this year (other than a simply lovely cover of The Way You Look Tonight) but will be previewing new music on their Back To School tour. Sigh. If only I were there...
• (Scissor Sisters won't be out for Christmas either, but there is a rather good interview with Jake Shears detailing what's going on with it over at Popjustice)
• As D'luv reported earlier this week, one of my other 2004 faves The Killers have a track on the Twilight:New Moon soundtrack. While the trailers for the film look absolutely dire and sinfully boring, I am of course very excited about this track entitled White Demon Love Song. Just from the title alone it has the potential to be epic and brilliant. Of course, all vampire soundtracks have to live up to the impossibly high bar that Annie Lennox set with Love Song For A Vampire. Shall we listen to it again? Yes, lets.
• While the new Dashboard Confessional song on the Jennifer's Body soundtrack (Finishing School) sounded a little bit "Sex and Candy" by Marcy's Playground (I still liked it), I'm loving the new single proper Belle of the Boulevard. Because it sounds like exactly what you would expect from DBC - and sometimes, if you are a fan of the band that is more than enough :) Much like the Indigo Girls & BArenaked Ladies, they are a group I consistently enjoy and who sometimes knock an amazing tune out the ballpark...
• There are a shocking 5 x-factor (or similar) related songs in my top 21 this week. And a plethora of new x-factor product videos hitting youtube, because Simon only likes to release new music near Christmas. Alexandra's Bad Boys video (despite the entirely gratuitous FloRida cameo) is oddly engaging, perhaps cos it's rare for an X Factor winner to be allowed to release an uptempo first single and perhaps because she busts some moves. Overall it's still rather catchy. And of course JLS (I wrote about the single here) have premiered the video for Everybody in Love. Apart from looking like it's been filmed in the Bad Girls prison, it's as generic and cheesy as the song - but therein lies it's charm, because it's delivered with such sincerity and conviction that you can't help but love it. And really it's all about Marvin's arms and Aston's trainers...
• Plenty of re-releases out for Christmas too - Erasure (as I mentioned a while back) are celebrating the 21st birthday of The Innocents with a gussied up edition for the market (they've been wooing every tom dick and bloggy with a Frankmusik remix of Phantom Bride too!); The London Boys 12 Commandments of Dance FINALLY gets a rerelease on cd (see the epic London Nights below) and Sinitta has a jam packed greatest hits coming your way with a new song and a bound-to-be-fab selection of Pete Hammond remixes. Start saving your pennies kiddies!

TOP 21 TRACKS OF THE WEEK:

21 ~ Benny Andersson Band, Story of a Heart
20 ~ Dolly Rockers, Boys will be Boys (NE)
19 ~ BSB, Soldier Down
18 ~ Little Boots, Earthquake (NE)
17 ~ Little Boots, Remedy
16 ~ JLS, Everybody in Love (NE)
15 ~ Same Difference, Better Love Me
14 ~ PSB, All Over The World
13 ~ Nerina Pallot, Real Late Starter
12 ~ Shakira, She-Wolf
11 ~ Mini Viva, I Left My Heart in Tokyo
10 ~ Sugababes 3.0, Get Sexy
09 ~ Alexandra Burke, Bad Boys
08 ~ Whitney Houston, Million Dollar Bill
07 ~ Madonna, Celebration
06 ~ BWO, Love Comes Crashing Down
05 ~ Alphabeat, The Spell
04 ~ Mariah Carey, I Want To Know What Love Is
03 ~ Mika, We Are Golden
02 ~ Leona Lewis, Happy
01 ~ Robbie Williams, Bodies (4 weeks)

Coming soon: What I would release as Christmas singles; the fizzypop book report; a few more album reviews - and the X Factor double bill (!)...