Lopez Blogs

Boooo! Half my holiday is now over unless i am snowed out of England and have to remain in Florida indefinitely, like all those poor people affected by the ash cloud earlier in the year. Still, it's probably been a lovely week and I've probably had a reet good time. Let's say yes and pretend I have as (as I've pointed out before) I'm writing this a week ago yet you are only reading it now. It's myfizzypop and the ultimate time conundrum. And as stated before, please do leave comments this week as they are coming right through to my phone and will give me a reet good laugh. Probably. Today's festive list focuses on harmony...

HARMONIOUS TIDINGS OF JOY:

• G4 ~ When A Child Is Born: This is one of my favourite christmas carols and I saw the lovely G4 perform it in a chilly coventry cathedral when their dulcet tones were only interrupted by my mom asking loudly if I wanted a cough sweet. Good times. An absolutely delightful version with a lovely restrained instrumental letting their gorgeous voices shine through. The standard by which all future poperatic christmas tunes need to be measured.
• Il Divo ~ Oh Holy Night: The international G4! Simon Cowell must have been furious when they did so well on the X-Factor, taking away the limelight from his long brewing multi national project! Anyway, they do a nicely reverent version of O Holy Night that absolutely rouses in the right places before falling away for a revered hush. When A Child Is Born? Absolutely - with a rousing crescendo of a finish...
• Blake ~ White Christmas: Extra kudos to the lovely Blake boys for getting their nads out for the Gay Times naked special. Not that it was necessary, they look delightful suited and booted too. Their version of White Christmas is elegant, restrained and makes full use of how their beautiful voices weave together with each note. When A Child Is Born? Oh yes, it was on their rereleased Together album last year. And mighty fine it is too.
• Only Men Aloud ~ Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas: It's the choral harmony group that i think won some competition that wasn't that fiasco on channel 5. This is a very nice version indeed, rich in layers of excellent vocals and warm festive hugs. It's like a more competent Glee! When A Child Is Born? Not that I know of, but they are doing a Christmas tour so who knows what will come up!!
• Wilson Phillips ~ Silver Bells: God, i'm loving the reformed for Christmas Wilson Phillips. This is a rapapumpum driven, church bell ringing version of the tune with a intricately harmonised chorus that makes their voices sound like one heavenly instrument. When A Child Is Born? YES! It's on the album too. It's almost too much to take!!
• Puppini Sisters ~ Winter Wonderland: Another jazzy tinged, 40s inspired track that takes you back to days of yore. By god they do it incredibly well. Loving their christmas work... When A Child Is Born? No, sadly not but they do a nice O Holy Night!

Top 21 songs of the week:

21 ~ McFly, Shine A Light
20 ~ Shayne Ward, Gotta Be Somebody
19 ~ Ola, Riot
18 ~ Gabriella Cilmi, On A Mission
17 ~ Westlife, Safe
16 ~ P!nk, Raise Your Glass
15 ~ JLS, Love You More
14 ~ Joe McElderry, Someone Wake Me Up
13 ~ Darin, Drowning
12 ~ Eric Saade, Break of Dawn
11 ~ A1, In Love and I Hate It
10 ~ Deborah Gibson, I Love You
09 ~ Kylie, Better Than Today
08 ~ EMD, What Is Love?
07 ~ Tove Styrke, White Light Moment (NE/VID)
06 ~ Le Kid, We Should Go Home Together
05 ~ Andrea Lewis ft Simon Curtis, Talk To Me
04 ~ Take That, The Flood
03 ~ Daniel Boys, To Make You Feel My Love
02 ~ Gravitonas, You Break Me Up
01 ~ Elouise, You'll Never Walk Alone (2 weeks)

Back Sat with some x-factor amazingness...

Clearly I am missing the X Factor more than I thought (for my thoughts on the Joe/Rage debacle check out Ken's blog on it and my comment!) I've had heated debates at work, re-watched the JLS/Alexandra duet an OBSCENE amount of times (we are talking Adem-Fame Monster levels of obsession!) and several times pretended that I am Michael Buble and duetted with the still amazing Stacey. So when I was programming my latest christmas playlist, i thought i would focus on that loveit/hateit genre of classical meets opera harmonic boy band pop... And as they all seem to focus on the same few Christmas carols between them, showing the same lack of originality of song choice that the X Factor does, I thought I would present them as the final four acts of the imaginary X Factor :P Because I'm bored and you can choose your winner in the comments. Vote wisely ;)

SONG CHOICE ONE:

• G4 - Silent Night: You could almost taste Simon Cowell's fury as the posh toffs from London progressed further and further in the inaugural X Factor, while he was busy developing Il Divo in the background. Oops. Anyway, this flawless acapella version of the classic is driven by Jonathan's lovely vocal and the sheer power of the gloriously harmonised backing vocals from, er, the other 3. It's all very reverent and restrained, then at 1m50s they just let loose and it's entirely showstopping. I saw them in Coventry Cathedral some years back and they were proper bonza...
• RyanDan ~ O Holy Night: From poptastic boyband to masters of harmonic convergence, the transformation of RyanDan (twin brothers from Canada) was one of their cannier moves. Appealing to a whole new market, they quickly came out looking absolutely gorgeous, blending their voices together like two finely tuned instruments and aided by some glorious production values, including the incomparable Steve Anderson. This is a beautiful performance that always makes the hairs on my arms rise - with an outstanding soaring note just before a gentle ending. I had the pleasure of interviewing the boys a year or so back and they were just ever so charming and lovely...
• Blake ~ White Christmas: If I recall correctly, Blake were the first group to be put together on facebook and while it may have been done electronically, the world is lucky that the four lads (here in their original line up) had the voices to challenge G4 and their ilk. Yes of course the song is a classic and the guy who leads it has a delicious baritone, but why on earth are they singing in a shed sales lot?! Hardly the most festive of surroundings, although they have some nice scarves on. Oh wait, there is a Christmas tree in the background and they do sort of look at each other with something slightly more than brotherly love. Oh let it snow let it snow let it snow!
• Il Divo ~ Do You Hear What I Hear: I'm a bit smitten with Camilla Kerslake at the moment (see below) so I'll allow an unsanctioned duet at this point of the competition (the competition that is fake and has no prize. Indulge me. I'm loaded on Bucks Fizz, the drink not the pop group). Anyway, Il Divo duetted with the lovely Camilla the other week on this great song, sounded marvelous (as did she) and would have had Louis jabbing his finger in his rule book relentlessly. Oh it's Christmas. Enjoy it - it's almost like a festive version of something hopeful from Les Miserables...

SONG CHOICE TWO ~ "WINNER'S" SONG:

• G4 ~ When A Child Is Born: The christmas song of choice for the poperas is also one of my favourite more religious based songs. The instrumental arrangement is warm and inviting and they build the song ever so gently to a carefully controlled crescendo in the last verse that leaves me all fuzzy inside with a giant happy. More please...
• Blake ~ When A Child Is Born: Ok, Blake's turn. The line up has changed ever so slightly but there are still some good looking lads here, and really that's half the battle won with the poperas. This has more of a solemn piano led arrangement than G4, which works equally as well - nice background ooos in verse two also as the piano gently lays a few chords in nice harmony. The last verse is suitably rousing with angelic choir soprano bits added that bring it to a fine conclusion. Amen brothers!
• Il Divo ~ When A Child Is Born: Of course when Simon Cowell is involved in the creation of your group you are bound to come out with the most bombastic, grandeur filled production of the lot. Is it too much? Never - enough is not a word that suits this song, although this version does somewhat lack the charm of the previous two versions...
• RyanDan ~ Can't Help Falling In Love: Deciding to mix it up a bit (partly because they haven't formally covered When A Child Is Born, though I bet they sing it around the piano at home and partly because I just heard this unreleased song from them today), I've decided that this song just sounds equally as festive and wonderful when sung by RyanDan. It's a gracious, elgaic version that has some heavenly muted trumpet, two line harmonies, a deep and generous backing choir and is delivered with such earnestness and sincerity that the song literally sparkles. Quite amazing. Like I don't have enough new obsessions, it then gets bought to a huge conclusion that knocks your socks off. Apparently they had a new song out in Canada earlier this year called Is Love Enough that is hopefully off a new album. I'll be writing LOTS more about them in the new year...

OK, cast your votes for your favourite wisely people. In the meantime, let's have a special guest to round things off :)

Camilla Kerslake ~ White Christmas: Discovered by Sir Gary of the Barlow, I just love Camilla's voice. Her rendition in Italian of Rule The World is spell binding. And frankly people always get bonus points in my book when they include the original beginning to White Christmas from the film. Because there has never been such a day, in Beverley Hills, LA. Of course this is string laden, with a few bell chimes hear and there and some lovely harp action.

See you tomorrow dudes!

Pop-opera boybands and soloists are a bit like drowning - once you stop struggling against it, it's really quite enjoyable. You can always tell when it's Christmas (or Mother's Day) because a plethora of them perforate the marketplace with their harmonised-to-within-an-inch-of their-life harmonies and bombastic production values. This Christmas alone sees Jonathan Ansell (formerly of my beloved possibly comedy-only-they-didn't-know-it G4), Il Divo, Blake and Only Men Aloud release albums of various pop standards and interpretations/annilihations of more recent groovesters. That will possibly set you back about £40/$55 (the £ to $ exchange rate is now shocking for us Brits. My salary in dollars is no longer as impressive!!) which is a positively ghastly amount to spend on popera. Here is my credit crunch saving tip to creating a nice home made compilation popera album for your mom/grandma/significant care giver (because they always say they love home made gifts!):

• Be aware that at a pinch only three of the singers in the several groups named above are even remotely attractive. However middle aged ladies cream their tenaladies over them all the time, so best just to go with a nice photo of yourself as a cover...
• Do not under any circumstances be tempted to put Rhydian Roberts on the compilation. He is quite annoying, is probably still a boastful virgin ("zavvi"?) and robbed Same Difference of second place. The cad.
• Be sure to put on songs like Jonathan Ansell's Who Wants To Live Forever (suprisingly understated but a little bit dull), Il Divo's (they call me mr) boombastic (semi fantastic) production of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's The Power of Love and Only Men Aloud's All By Myself. These are songs from the era of the middle aged lady and therefore she will be able to spend hours harmonising to them in the shower.
• Try not to visualise the person you give this to harmonising in the shower because it's quite repulsive. Unless you plan on giving it to Ben Barnes.
• Also add semi-gay classic songs like Only Men Aloud's pinktastic Don't Rain On My Parade and Il Divo's cash-inriffic The Winner Takes It All. Middle aged lady/mom/primary care giver has probably watched loads of gaycentric movies with her very special son who just can't find the right girl.
• Add a few "contemporary" tunes like Blake's surprisingly lovely Chasing Cars and as dull as the original Closest Thing To Crazy. To be fair both sound quite nice on a cold winter morning. And then step back in time and add RyanDan's Wind Beneath My Wings. It's been on that Bette Midler advertisment for ages now so why not pretend it's modern.
• Finally be sure to add a whole bunch of festive classics - RyanDan do a nice version of Holy Night, Il Divo nail When A Child Is Born, Only Men Aloud tackle Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Jonathan does a less brillo but still good version of O Holy Night while Blake have a pop mix of White Christmas floating around.

This post wasn't very good at all :( I should've reviewed something contemporary and modern like the new Jason Donovan album...