Lopez Blogs

It's barely February, but already I'm looking ahead to see if any of my fave acts have new albums out anytime soon. And hurrah, some of the ones I obsess about do. This is very pleasing indeed and gives me more to look forward to than a sexy countryside break, meeting XO again and new series of Doctor Who & True Blood. Not that those aren't all ace of course. Anyway, here are a few brillo albums I'm chuffing up the spaff over...

Maroon 5: oh Adam LeFine, how you complete me. Love, Actually may have got me to check out your music, but it was your funky tunes and romantic rhymes that got me to stay. It's been three (long) years since the wonderful It Won't Be Soon Before Long and already teasers for a third (and rumoured final, sob) album are popping up on youtube. It's due sometime around April and they've been recording in Switzerland with Mutt Lange. I'm tres excited indeed and really look forward to more quality music from them :) (read my IWBSBL review here)

The Feeling: Oh I absolutely need more sunny 70s style perfectly harmonised to within an inch of their lives catchy pop from the gorgeous Feeling boys very shortly. Currently organising their own Meribal Little World festival (which Richard's wifey Sophie Ellis-Bextor will appear at) in March in the Alps, their third album is apparently called Yes Please. Way to take two Pet Shop Boys album titles and make them into one! The song they debuted live last year (Truth Comes Out as the Drink Goes In) sounded marvelous and will appeal to existing fans. Will it be enough to win back the larger fan base that was around for album one? Time will tell, but i'll always adore. (read my Join With Us review here)

Sophie Ellis-Bextor: Talking of the other half of pop's bestest looking couple, people are starting to get rather excited about the comeback of the poshest girl in pop music. Frankly, Heartbreak Makes Me A Dancer (video above - see Little Boots? This is how to enjoy yourself!) still sounds utterly stupendous and magnificent; it should have done way way better in the charts (i'm thinking minimum of top 3 for 5 weeks). Luckily, Mrs Jones has a chance to rectify this with Bittersweet which is another collaboration with the Freemasons and so should be absolutely spiffing. In fact, it should be dripping with lusciousness through your radio speakers any day now. And Another Love (the fourth album) drops in April. If any of it is as magnificent as her previous work, I'll be spooning it for months to come... (read my Tripping The Light review here)

Shayne Ward: Myself, D'Luv and John Pop Music Notes could probably individually and collectively discuss how abandoned poor Shayne's career has been to date. As soon as Leona came along, Britain's best hope for a bonafide, exciting, chavtastic boffable ride popstar was cruelly abandoned two top ten hits into his rather good second album Breathless. A third is forthcoming in March apparently (though rumours of a duet with Heidi Sugababe 2-4.0 are not true), though his twitter keeps saying he is recording new tracks as I type (literally)! Should be an absolutely poptastic affair as xenomania are involved, as are some of Sweden's finest. Don't screw this up Simon Cowell. You need to make reparations for inflicting Joe on me... (read my Breathless review here)

Kylie: Talking of xenomania, they can't stop giving Kylie up... and will any album this year be as minutely analysed as this one will be? Everyone had an opinion on what should and shouldn't have been on X and how it should have been marketed. All that matters to me is that Kylie is coming back and it will no doubt feature some ace dance numbers, something penned by the marvelous Nerina Pallot, something that divides fans down the middle a la 2 Hearts and hopefully something deliciously camp. Plus Steve Anderson has indicated in his ace DSTP interview that Kylie fans should keep their eye on the west end of London this year. Oh my. (read my X review here)

Keane: The boarding school boys are back with an EP (when did 8 tracks constitute an EP? Surely that's enough to classify as an album?) called Night Train that was recorded on their Perfect Symmetry world tour. While that album was a somewhat return to form after the disappointing second album, nothing has topped the excellent Hopes and Fears yet. I don't know much about this, other than it's released in May 2010, but Gay Times seems to think Your Love (with vocals from Tim Rice Oxley - rar!) is an epic in the making. Sounds good to me. (read my perfect symmetry review here)

Albums I'd quite like some news on: McFly, BWO, Danny Saucedo, Ola Svensson, Sergey Lazarev, William Young, Hard-Fi, Tom Baxter (D'luv has the lowdown on Boyzone)...

I'm sure there are some people I've missed so a part two might be forthcoming. Prior to that though is first in a "greatest hits I need in my life now" feature...