Lopez Blogs

Well after a day where 67 year old men did presentations on how Lady Gaga has changed pop amidst numerous other things, I barely thought I'd have time to get this post done. But i'm all for a quickie, so I'm going to throw it together for you in minimal time. How's that for love and devotion?! PS all links to tv performances where poss...

More essential playlist tunes for May:

• JLS ~ Heal This Heartbreak: The theme of this month's Chronicles is obviously "when record companies attack". Once again, a pop band has been let down by a record company (Shayne Ward starts every diary entry like this). They should essentially be on a 5th single, having missed the opportunity to release the corntastic but charming Close To You at Chrismtas. Oh well. This would have made a brillo single, but for now it's onto album two (next track on playlist pending)...
• Lemar ft JLS ~ What About Love: ...or instead just imagine that JLS had popped out this as a double AA side single (do I need to do 2 As if I have already typed double?!) with Heal The Heartbreak? Just imagine! Are you done imagining? This rather lovely ballad is dreamy and swoony all at once, with a simplistic but delightful melody and some lovely harmonies. Teenage girls could be crying at concerts in the video and all boyband cliches would be restored to the world (especially with some Christ like poses at the end of the video). No, no, album two it is then :(
• Donkeyboy ~ Sometimes: Hmm, are Donkeyboy still not famous in the UK with the lovely Ambitions? bah humbug to that. This track isn't quite as transcendent as Ambitions but it certainly is a rather lovely piece of 80s inspired magnificence - oh and it's definitely the glorious chorus that makes you want to get out your seat and smooch whoever you are standing next to at the time...
• Boyzone ~ Love Is A Hurricane: Wasn't Gave It All Away quite wonderful? Cellos in pop are becoming an increasing necessity. This should really be the boys next single if they are to get any more mileage out the album (though my head nearly exploded at the Corrie where the song played in the background of the Rovers while Shane was pulling pints at the bar. Insanity!) It's a nice upbeat song that's a little bit country, without being a little bit rock n roll. Inoffensive pop as people would call it...
• Westlife ~ Where We Are: Where you are Westlife, is stuck with an album that has only had one single out and that was back in bloody October. Sort it out you goons, and get Nicky naked while you are at it. They could have released Shadows back in Feb and have this title track of the album out to coincide with the tour they have planned. Sigh. It's very drummy, with nice harmonies. Again, not a world changer, but perfectly pleasant.
• Backstreet Boys ~ If I Knew Then: What a perfect opportunity for a Simon Curtis update :P He is supporting AJ McLean at the Roxy in LA on May 6th. My 10th anniversary. So if anyone wants to pay to fly Darren and I out there that would be super. Back to BSB, why Bigger wasn't bigger is beyond me, why All Of My Life wasn't a third single is a baffler and this could easily cap off a successful album/singles campaign but hasn't. MUST I DO EVERYTHING FOR THESE GROUPS? :P
• Natalie Imbruglia ~ Fun: If I was going to stop going on about botched album campaigns, now really wouldn't be the time to do it, but it is getting a bit repetitive isn't it?! Anyway, half of Natalie's album is genius, and half is a bit experimental for me (who won't try sweet chilli flavoured crisps because i feel they are too 'out there'). Fun is a brilliant follow up to Scars though, very radio friendly, nice chorus, lovely vocal. What's not to like?
• Nerina Pallot ~ I Don't Want To Go Out: Good for you Nerina. Sometimes I like to stay in, have a nice hot chocolate and watch a Dr Who or something. It's not all about buzzing your nuts off. I foolishly diverted from Nerina's single releases and chose When Did I Become Such A Bitch for the Feb playlist, which makes this early 2010 single seem a bit dated in terms of it should have featured earlier. In terms of it being utterly magnificent, then it is not dated at all and a rollicking little piano led pop tune. PS, i listened to Geek Love about 5 times this morning.
• Hurts ~ Better Than Love: This song gets better each time I hear it. Are Hurts actually ready to happen just yet, or are they going to be one of those bands that keep having "pre-single" singles out forever? Does it really matter? Not when the song builds up into this crashing chorus that entirely takes over everything in your life for those few seconds it plays. The song really gets going at about 40 seconds and it's full on from there. Keep with it and get rewarded :)
• Keane ~ Stop For A Minute: I'm honestly too tired to write about this again right now, so just go to my most recent post for a still relevant write up. It's really grown on me since then and I'm finding it more endearing with each and every listen. Yes, like Hurts. God I'm repetitive today!
• The Ark ~ Superstar: oh Nick AlienHits will be pleased. A new Ark single preceding an entirely new to be devoured Ark album. Bonza! It's a definite feelgood single with a great guitar riff running throughout it and an almost bonkers glam rock vibe to it. But that's what they do best and like Abba their not quite perfect English just adds to the overall charm of the package. Do check them out :)

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.

I think I woke up in a bit of a funk and a bit of a mood. Just one of those days I guess. I have them every so often so I won't bore you with the details ) I did sort of wonder today "ooo what do I blog about now?" as for the past 4-5 months, the blog has had a real focus - first the x-factor posts, then Christmas and of course most recently the Vegas diaries! I think I have sort of forgotten how to just blog spontaneously! I'll need to get back into the habit... Anyway, while not particularly groundbreaking or shockingly new even, here is some solid boy pop that has caught my ear recently...

Adam Tyler - Lullabies for Rattlesnakes:


2010 needs someone like Adam Tyler. I've expoused his many attributes on this blog over the past few months (and love that his press releases take the most random quotes from those like "a thoroughly nice chappy" and "over excited puppy" which makes it sound like I don't write about his music at all, but obviously I do :P) and am quite excited that his electro-tinged, doused in pop debut album Lullabies for Rattlesnakes is nearing completion. An album megamix is doing the rounds and includes ace dance tracks with a sizzling edge like Masquerade which grooves down with a seriously funky twist and Take It To Extremes which behaves like it's auditioning for a sci-fi musical. Friction remains a fave of mine and is so chartbound it's almost popping out at the seams, while Over The Top has been rewhizzed from the Luigi Masi track it originally was (!) into something quite brilliant. It's all looking quite promising indeedy and I still maintain that Adam has the fun factor going on in spades. Plus he'd be ideal for my proposals for a second series of Britannia High (which could totally work in the post Glee world!!)
See also:

• Adam Tyler ~ Ghost Of Christmas Past: An eerily melancholy tune that's both wistful and yearning all at once. christmas may have gone but it's perfect for those cold frosty mornings...
• Simon Curtis - Diablo: More amazing electro pop from a boy! Girls may have ruled last year but the testosterone is coming back with a vengence (PS - there's a Diablo show mix?!)...

Boyzone ~ Gave It All Away:

Let's focus on the positive... there is a new Boyzone single. It features Stephen. It's actually quite good and very "must listen again quite soon". There's some terribly sad pathos going on as Stephen sings the opening line ("I will learn to live before I die") set to some lovely piano juxtaposed with cello. Bits and pieces are added here and there (e.g. a shuffling beat, some quite nice harmonies in the chorus and some spoingy - yes it's a word - sound effects as verse two kicks in) until it's chugging along like someone has done a gentle remix of a Lilt commercial. Oh, and there is a rather brilliant (depending on how much you like this sort of thing) middle 8 which sounds like it's lifted directly from Lion King: The Musical. So yes, I really like it. The slightly down side is that it probably would have been a brilliant Joe McElderry single and I can't quite get that out my head when I listen to it. Also, the video isn't really my cup of tea - it straddles a dangerous line between genuine grief and record company exploitation. I don't need to be visually reminded of how sad the bandmates must have been at losing Stephen. Anyway, sandwich the negative! It's one of Mika's better tunes and a lovely Stephen tribute.
See also:

• Mika ~ Rain: one of the better tracks from his second album and the one that seemed to lyrically match how my day was going
• Stephen Gately ~ New Beginning: Quite poptastic and magnificent actually. As was Shooting Star...
• Boyzone ~ Melting Pot: They were never as brillo as Take That were (and continue to be) for me, but this was their finest moment...

A1 ~ Take You Home:

A1! 3/4 of them have returned! And they are making new music! This was actually out in November in Norway but inexplicably I've only just gotten around to it. It's a rather welcome return for the boys too as it takes a bit of what made their third guitary based third album so brilliant, adds some of the pop sensibilities of Ben's solo music and dashes it all off with the maturity of solo Christian (who has frankly always been quite a delight). What's surprising is that it's the sort of soaring pop classic that Take That and Coldplay and The Feeling have recently built very large careers on, yet still retains a cheeky wink that the more serious musicians seem to be missing out on. Even better news is that their next single (a contender for Norwegian eurovision heats) Don't Want To Lose You Again is an even more accomplished pop ballad that shows that this may be the best boyband comeback since Take That, because the talent is a) there and b) being shared around the group. Aces.
See also:

• A1 ~ Caught In The Middle: Quite quite brilliant and - like BBMak - laid the foundation for ace guitary boyband pop from McFly and the "ilk"...
• Ben Adams ~ Sorry: Why Ben's solo career didn't take off is a great shame - he had some quirky tunes, good looks and a gap in the boy pop market. Sigh.
• Christian Ingebrigtsen ~ Adorable: Like Mark Owen, he was ridiculously overlooked, particularly when putting out sweet little ditties like this one...

Lemar ~ The Way Love Goes:

Well flap me sideways and bugger me gently with a banana! I frankly never really paid any attention to Lemar but then he goes and announces a duet on his greatest hits with JLS so I thought, oh I better have a quick butchers then. So I investigated his comeback single and gosh darn it, if it isn't the perfect Shayne Ward return vehicle. It's a brillo Stargate produced pop tune that absolutely soars from the first note through to a kicking little chorus through to a ridiculous yet more catchy the more I hear it middle 8. Love it when he breaks into "someone's coming to save me"... well done Lemar, you 've got me hooked on your new tune to a ridiculous degree. Quite delicious. Curse Shayne Ward for not getting to it first... :/
See also:

• Lemar ~ If There's Any Justice: Oh, apparently I am more aware of Fame Academy Alum Lemar than I thought as my word perfect singalong to this quite nice tune shows...
• Shayne Ward ~ Melt The Snow: There were lots of tracks as decent as The Way Love Goes on Shayne's abandoned far too soon Breathless album. This is one of them, although not quite as upbeat. Still lovely though...
• David Sneddon ~ Best of Order: Another Fame Academy alum (who is now apparently done bits of work with the very excellent Hurts - more on them soon!) - this is one of his best and still outstanding after all this time...

Jedward ~ Under Pressure/Ice Ice Baby:

Jesus Christ on a cross. It's actually happened. It seemed like a gentle joke, something to guffaw about while I enjoyed their ghastly yet brilliant (for all the wrong reasons) X-factor performances. Yet here is the debut single and of course it's instantly more entertaining than any note Joe sang on The Climb. Oh let's throw caution to the wind and say that I'm actually quite enjoying it. They are having a ball, i love their clothes and of course it's not going to change the face of pop as we know it, but it puts some much needed fun back in the charts and every now and then that can be a good thing. Divisive as ever of course - there is a rather brillo moment at 1m35s where a young man in a suit looks like he might attack them viciously, yet at 1m38s a dude in glasses is practically moist that they are so near. Good God, Jedward has landed!

Back tomorrow with the girls!