Lopez Blogs

Sigh. I adore Shayne Ward. He proved to the world that The X Factor could produce a good looking boy popstar who could not only sing, but be versatile in his live song choices and bop along too. Plus of course he has produced (as you are all bored of me telling you by now) the X Factor's finest moment in Somewhere Over The Rainbow. And he looks a proper good bounce in the sack too. Score, score, score. And it all seemed to be going so right with a second album that was packed with potential singles. I thought that If That's Ok With You was a great first single, Breathless a decent second (I wasn't a big fan of No U Hang Up so tend to gloss over that) and was eager for more. Were they forthcoming? Were they buggery. No Melt The Snow Christmas release. No Damaged. No remix version of Tears Never Dry. Such wasted opportunities. And to make matters worse, it's been 3 long years since Breathless when Shayne could've whipped out a third album and a greatest hits for crying out god's sake!!

Still new music is a-coming and as I alluded in the last post, there have been a couple of leaks this weekend - including a rather lovely ballad called Crash. Frankly, you can rarely go wrong with songs with Crash in the title. There's Crash by the Primitives which is rather bonza. There's the lovely lethargic Crash Into Me by Dave Matthews Band. Let's not forget the aces Crash Boom Bang by Roxette. (And if you change one letter you get the amazing group Crush who did Jellyhead and are probably more the ancestor of Mini Viva than the popular notion that MV are the descendants of Mel & Kim...) Anyway, it's a lovely piano ballad produced by Stargate with the focus firmly on Shayne's voice and a lovely lilting melody. It's not exactly first single material, but it's a gorgeous tune that grows as you listen with a finger clicking beat and dreamy lyrics - would make an excellent fourth single with a new uptempo track as an AA side. And there's a rather funky smart-pop tune in the form of The Way You Are that shows Shayne producing a more modern version of No U Hang Up - except this time I'm totally on board. So why oh why are we still waiting for official announcement for first single proper and third album? Particularly when Mika and Lemar are producing entirely acceptable pop tunes that work very well in the Shayne Ward mould of pop?

Mika ~ Bonkers popette Mika has come back with a song that doesn't feature on his current album but sounds like it should. It's called Kick Ass and it's produced by RedOne. Now, Shayne is not exactly the popstar you think of when you first listen to the tune because it's so inherently Mika (Queen-esque moments, bombastic production value, incessant falsetto). It is, however, a rather decent pop tune and stretch your minds for a minute because if Shayne sang this it would be a rather daring comeback single and would certainly stand out for him. As a Mika tune, I rather like it as it happens - it's a bit too close for We Are Golden for my liking and not quite as brilliant as Rain, but it's rather pleasing over all. That is all I have to say on that, other than I am disappointed there is no high pitched "mika. Redone" at the beginning.

Lemar ~ I must confess I haven't really paid much attention to Fame Academy alum in the past. His rather bonza greatest hits single, The Way Love Goes was an effervescent slice of goodness that would - and does - sound perfect when played after Tears Never Dry by Shayne. It's the most Shayne-esque song I've heard in ages, and sometimes I even think it is him when it comes on. Regardless, it's proper decent, infectious pop and a terrific track that deserved to do better than a week or so in the top ten. He's also rerecorded an early track called What About Love which now features the vocal stylings of a little known boyband JLS on vocals and works wonderfully well as a dreamy ballad. As if that wasn't enough, there is a beyond fantastic potential club stomper on there called You Don't Love Me which features/samples Kim Wilde (You Keep Me Hanging On) of all bloody people. Utterly screams massive hit and is (to be fair) simply wonderful. Three songs that would make fantastic singles and seem to indicate that Breathless (the album) was a prototype for the type of pop Shayne needs to be making now. And yes, still enjoyable as Lemar tracks.

That post was a bit weird really. Fizzypop chronicles for April tomorrow. Ish.