Lopez Blogs

There were at least 5 acts that I fell in love with in 2004 and followed slavishly ever since. I actually wrote about this obsession in one of my very early blog posts which you can unfortunately read here. I advise that you don't - I was yet to find my own voice, the writing is ghastly, but at least it was the start of a 4 year (so far) friendship with chartrigger and xolondon... Anyway, though I have written about this acts oodles since the last "joint" round up in 2006, here is the next chapter in what 2004 did next...

• Maroon 5: Sigh. Doesn't Adam look dreamy? The answer to that question is a a very obvious yes. M5 have been busy beavering away in Switzerland with the ex Mr Shania Twain working hard on their upcoming third album, Hands All Over. There is lots of news on this album over at American Way, but the exciting news (for now - only to be superceded by the new single, which will have salivating from all orifices) is that lovely Adam does guest vocals on a track on Slash's new album. Entitled "Gotten", it is about as close as you are going to get to a maroon 5 ballad prior to the new album. It's very She Will be Loved with some lovely guitar work and a typically smooth and beautiful vocal from Adam. It's got a heavenly, instantly memorable chorus and some distinctive vocodered layered backing vocals, all done by Adam. And again, doesn't he look dreamy?!
• Scissor Sisters: Pop of the Justice recently did quite a long article on how amazing the new Scissters album sounds. This is probably very true indeed. I absolutely adored their second album (I was re-watching some Doctor Who the other day when I Can't Decide popped up and I've had a mini re-obsession with Ta-Dah ever since. It's honkytonkpianotastic!) and am eagerly anticipating the third. Frankly, while Do The Strand was a nice diversion, it's no substitute for a whole album of astonishing new singalong tunes is it? Hurry up and release something please or at least bloody announce it. In other essential Scisster news, Jake tweeted Adam Lambert saying they should meet up for a drink in NYC. Indeed.
• BWO: There really isn't any new BWO news as of late, though if you haven't listened to stunningness like Chariots of Fire or Right Here Right Now in recent minutes you are possibly doing yourself a huge disservice. There is some news about Gravitonas however which is the new group that Alexander Bard is putting together. The news essentially is that Gravitonas exists, Scandipop has heard their first single and it's a little bit country and a little bit rock n roll (that's not strictly true, click the link for an accurate representation), they have twitter and the single is called Kites and has a whopping 77 minutes of remixes available. Lord luv a duck. I strangely can't wait :)
• Keane: I've been a bit up and down with Keane. Loved the first album, not a huge fan of the second and still a tiny bit ambivalent about the third, though overall it was very good. But I keep coming back for more. They had a song out earlier in the year called Burning Black Heart (from the Perfect Symmetry album) as part of Oxfam's Haiti effort and which they sing in French here. As I am currently obsessed with French pop, this is very good news as it is not only a pleasantly chugging uptempo pop song but sounds tres bon sung en francais. There is also a nice spoken bit in the middle which makes me go a bit weak at the knees. More recently a track from their upcoming EP has surfaced called Stop For A Minute. Vinny Vero has done a rather good post about it all which is basically what I wanted to say about it all, so why not just pop over there and "stop for a minute" to read it! See what I did there? Literally gobsmacking my writing is I tells ya. It's quite a nice little pop song and a perfectly pleasant (if not outstanding) re-introduction to the band. The EP should be quite interesting...

More this week in the shape of Scotts, Matt Dusk and Erik Saade...