Lopez Blogs

• There are two very important single releases that are happening this week. First up is the effortlessly cool Red Blooded Women who are shacking up all over the clubs with the funky remixes to You Made Your Bed. I thought it might be rather difficult to improve on this slinky seductive pop number but I was wrong. They picked up some great remixes along the way and made the weeks cheapest but most brilliant video ever. God i love these dames...
• Also out this week is a rather slick radio remix of Oh Laura's very lovely indeed Release Me. I can't help but feel that this band are still teetering on the edge of something very massive and special indeed. They appeared on Radio 2 this week and just stunned me with the acoustic versions of some of their album's finest tracks. This band fails to do no wrong and yet they are not chart toppers. I sense it is a matter of time. Be prepared. Check out Release Me now. You know you want to. It's the most lovely piece of work since Bic Runga's Sway.
• Props to the junior admin staff at work who "the management" tasked with "extra responsibility" by assigning them the job of coming up with a layout for a new company newsletter (that sounds really patronising but actually it was laziness on our part as no one wanted to do it). They do a bonza job except that it was gently pointed out that "The [insert company name here] Rant" didn't really put across the positive message wanted (I even had to patiently google the meaning of "rant" for them and found "A rant or harangue is a speech or text that does not present a well-researched and calm argument" and "pompous or pretentious talk or writing" Oh my!) Eventually they settled on The ProClaimar which if you knew the name of the company is actually rather brilliant! (It's not really hard to guess after that is it?)
• What the bugger is going on with Timbaland and Madonna is the question on lots of people's lips. Personally I really like Hard Candy. I think it's rather good. I get why people don't think it's a great Madonna album. I think it's a good album regardless of whether it's Madonna or not. But as much as I love Madonna, i'm not as invested in her output as I am with other albums (I've been incredibly disappointed with one Deborah album and two Robbies!) so I'm not too bothered. Really, it is time to move on from Timbaland. For all popstars. Jadion needs to be the new producer of choice :) Though Four Minutes is fucking fantastic still!
• Oh 50 days of Big Brother (Why Bother) and it's getting incredibly dull. There is only so many times you can admire Stuart and Dales bodies (and sometimes dress sense). Darnell has gone slightly mental, Mikey and his washing testicular mass in a drinking cup repulses me, Luke is fucking awful and the rest of them bar Kat, Rachel and Sarah are the sort of egomaniacs you only normally find in the more pretentious London clubs. And everytime Bex is up for eviction, she decides to snog Luke which is repulsive to watch. It's like watching an overstuffed dog pouring over the remains of an emancipated chicken carcuss. Yet I cannot bear to look away :P
• There are lots of lovely Gossip Girl season 2 pics popping up all over the web. It all looks very exciting. You know you love me, xoxo, etc.

Oh what a week it has been. A good one though. And busy! I had a ton of stuff to do for work as I have a week off next week, so of course all of next week's work needed to be up to date too. I finished our firm's environmental audit too (which I implemented about a year ago)... and was all annoyed with the branches that STILL don't recycling facilities. I got all preachy and "it's disgusting in this day and age that you are only just doing something about it" etc., then realised I was sounding a bit of a twat. But still - did live earth teach people nothing? Sheesh. Anyway, off soap box and on with a round up of the week (a week that contained some potentially very exciting news for me. Ooo intruiging)...

American Idol finale:

• Despite sucking harder than an top 24 contestant on his/her knees on Tuesday night (ooo how inhabited with the spirit of d'luv was that!), Mr David of Cook beat cherubic looking David Archuleta. Of course all of that was deemed irrelevant by the appearance of a very dapper looking Ryan Tedder. Take some fashion notes Archie. Jeans and a jacket will only get you so far in life... (Download video here)
• The other highlight was who was arriving on the red carpet! Some WTF moments came from Thomas Dekker (great new crew cut, but that top? Jesus!) and Jon Peter Lewis (either a VERY unflattering angle or someones been drowning their sorrows in cup cakes!) Still at least Blake Lewis looked quite decent in a sort of boffable way...(click links for piccies)
• I'm temporarily changing my opinion of Jason Dreadlocks. His version of Hallelujah was quite good.
• The rest of the show was mainly filler. Seal was good. As was Donna Summer, though one girl in the group tribute did not look happy to be singing in a group! Oh well. X Factor to look forward to now then...

Pop bytes and bloggy gossip:

• Oh Laura are back! Well they never went away. But they do have a stunning new video for Release Me. Sigh. It's lovely.
• Monsieur D'Luv is remembering when Madonna wore blouses in videos and he wore denim shirts. Fashion disasters that have come back to haunt them both :P
• Bobby puts some ridiculously good looking bloke on his site and gets spammed by an overzealous Doe Deere fan. Crikey!
• Yuri has Olga begging him for Mercy! Oh my days :P
• Poppostikipediagirl has been fervently following Eurovision and notes that the brits got it oh so right with putting all our points in Sweden's basket. Shame the brits got it oh so wrong by letting Andy "my greatest hits is out this week. No really!" Abrahams be our less than stirling entry...
• DanUK has all the great comics gossip. I feel slightly ashamed that I downloaded some comics this week and spent ages wondering what the fuck a .cbr extension was. Worked it out now...
• DanUSA and Heidi are guilty. And not just of love in the first degree....
• XO is critiquing all the necessary album covers. The Zuton's one almost makes up for their music...
• Digital Spy has an endlessly amusing look at flop boybands.

Fizzypoptastic Top 21 Songs of the week

21 ~ Mariah Carey, Bye Bye (NE)
20 ~ Last Shadow Puppets, Age of The Understatement
19 ~ Sergey, Flyer
18 ~ Jesse McCartney, Leaving
17 ~ Enrique, Can You Hear Me (NE)
16 ~ Duffy, Warwick Avenue
15 ~ Jason Mraz, Lucky
14 ~ Captain, Keep An Open Mind
13 ~ Kylie, In My Arms
12 ~ Ola, Love in Stereo
11 ~ Blake Lewis, How Many Words?
10 ~ Rongedal, Just A Minute
09 ~ David Jordan, Move On
08 ~ Alphabeat, 10,000 Nights of Thunder
07 ~ Caracola, Smiling in Love
06 ~ Madonna, 4 Minutes
05 ~ The Feeling, Without You
04 ~ Jack McManus, Bang on Your Piano
03 ~ Jesse McCartney, Bleeding Love
02 ~ BWO, Lay Your Love On Me
01 ~ Maroon 5 ft Rihanna, Never See Your Face (1 week)

Previous 2008 Number Ones: The Feeling, I Thought It Was Over (4 weeks); David Jordan, Sun Goes Down (4 weeks); Jesse McCartney, Leaving (3 weeks); Madonna, 4 Minutes (2 weeks); The Feeling, Without You (4 weeks); BWO, Lay Your Love on Me (3 weeks)

THE FIZZYPOP CHRONICLES START HERE...

I have just spent an inordinate amount of time stuck on a jam packed train with rowdy scottish football hooligans, all singing terrace chants and something about some bird taking it up the 'arris. I tried to ooze heterosexual interest but really when you have a chubby man's breast in your face, your lip does tend to curl in distaste. So I have come home to write about some classy new pop tunes I've been listening to - and all with gorgeously vocalled female singers...


Let's start off with my increasingly beloved (by me and lots of other people) Oh Laura. They may well be my favourite new act of 2008 and certainly are one of my top five albums of the year. Something about that voice, the haunting instrumentation and the sheer emotion running through each and every song has me quivering for more. So I couldn't be more thrilled that the lovely Release Me is soundtracking a car ad (and got everyone wondering "whose that band?") and much more importantly that they have recorded a stunning new song for new BritFlick The Waiting Room. Entitled Waiting For You, it was co-written with Tim Rice and has this great "earthy" value to it, as the song flows naturally rather than being reliant on over production. Once again the band merges seamlessly with the vocal and all float gently powered by raw anguish and longing. I'm always slightly stunned by the beauty of the vocal delivery and how it is used as an instrument to add dimensions to the song. Hopefully this will turn Oh Laura from a cult fave to a household name...
LINK: Oh Laura facebook / bebo / iLike

I always kinda root for the underdog. Not that I think Alannah Myles is a dog, but i followed her career way beyond her huge hit Black Velvet, and always dug her raspy vocals and bluesy music. I guess she was quite big in Canada, and after sometime off has a new album out with a trippy version of Black Velvet on it. Imagine the powerful vocal of the original with a shuffling "Justify My Love" type beat behind it and you are pretty much there. I'm not always a big fan of remakes but this one is working out well for me, and the eastern tinge to the production gives it a nice hazy feel. The album isn't too bad either (though far from perfect!)
LINK: Alannah Myles website

• Sandi Thom ~ Devil's Beat
• Cyndi Lauper ~ Set Your Heart

Certainly not worthy of anyone's time (despite my v brief seduction by it. I was bewitched!)

• Katy Perry ~ Ur So Gay
• Katy Perry ~ I kissed a girl (Stick with Jill Sobule)

I quite like the title of my post today. I modestly feel it would make quite a good album title - or at the very least a chapter title in a very pretentious novel. Wasn't the weather nice today? I was walking along listening to the "Phantom of the Opera" type bit in The Feeling song "Join With Us" and for some reason started to walk slow motion style like I was at the end of the Angel opening credits or something, before realising I looked like a complete effing twat. Anyway, after the Feeling song was over, 2 other songs came on at random that were totally brillo and totally available for utterly free and legal download...


OH LAURA: A CALL TO ARMS ~ I have slowly but surely become besotted with the incredibly soothing sounds of Oh Laura. In fact, I will probably only stop writing about how brilliant they are when they stop making brilliant records. Which is hopefully never. With each listen of their stunning and near flawless debut album (A Song in my Head, A Demon in my Bed) i gravitate to a different tune to obsess about for a little while. This track is a desperate midnight plea to a lover, sung with such emotion and naked passion that it's a truly intimate experience. The most hypnotic sirens song i've heard in a while, the live version (below) juxtapositions the gorgeous floating vocal with some dreamy electric guitar work that keeps the whole track alive. Seriously, if you haven't signed up with this band yet, you and I are going to have words... :P
LEGAL MP3: Oh Laura ~ Call To Arms (live)
LINK: Download Oh Laura ~ Fine (live)
PURCHASE: Buy the album on iTunes


TEMPOSHARK: CRIME ~ I finally decided to give Temposhark a whirl after XO's rather good review of their debut album The Invisible Line. Their single Blame is very good and lovely in the extreme, and a good example of how polished pop can still be made and sound sumptuous and dignified at the same time. Their track Crime is a step forward from that - with a sound that is reminiscent of Darren Hayes' Popular mixed with the emerging electro beats favoured by 80s legends Erasure and Pet Shop Boys. It's an almost trance like feel about the thrill of committing a crime and how sometimes only bondage and pain can make a relationship feel alive again. Pretty dark stuff, but quite bold and ultimately a tune I keep returning to. What that says about me, I don't know... :P
LEGAL MP3: Temposhark ~ Crime
PURCHASE: Buy the album on iTunes

By the way, be sure to check out Nick's excellent article on the very amazing Jean. It certainly made me return to their fine debut album...