Lopez Blogs

There seems to be an increasing amount of focus at the start of each year on which acts are meant to be huge in the upcoming 12 months. Perhaps these lists were always around and I've only just started paying any attention to them? Anyhoo, I quite like these lists - it gives me a few pointers and gets me checking out new talent, most of which I've already read about on blogs anyway! So I thought I'd do something a bit different - the main acts i'm rooting to have big success in the next 12 months. I've written about all these acts before, and some of them have been going for a few years. But i thought i'd remind you all of them again, before I do my "hot new acts to watch" post on Friday... And they are presented here in no particular order other than alphabetical :)

Alien Beat Club: They were the finalists on this year's Danish X Factor and a group I think X factor blogger Mark would have loved were they in the UK version. I mean, they mashed together Circle of Life and Just Dance for crying out god's sake. Other than this stroke of genius, they have been busy putting together lovely material like smooth mid-tempo pop nugget My Way, doing charity songs like It's My World and generally becoming a mixed gender JLS. Quite marvy.


Simon Curtis: oh please stop exhibiting any surprise that the amazing Mr. Curtis makes this list once again for the fourth year in a row. And that's not to say he hasn't had degrees of success before now - Alter Boy remains an epic piece of work (and a much bootlegged one too) and Spectacular is an enjoyable movie musical with a fun soundtrack. However, 2010 already feels like it's going to be all about 8BitHeart. Delusional and Diablo (in particular) are mammoth slices of forward thinking pop that just get me more than excited for the album release. Success is so close for Simon, I can taste it :) (Simon also features in a 10 to watch list over at Bill CS)


Rochella Danishei: Just as Candy Coated Chaos looked like they were on the cusp of hitting it big, it was all over. Luckily, out of the ashes of that which has fallen, something equally pop and perky arises and Rochella has been busy building up a solo reportoire of songs for the world to enjoy. Tracks like The Show Must Go On and Roll The Dice are funky, spunky slices of dance-pop that entice and seduce. Glad to know that Rochella is still working with ace producer Jadion too - he's got to be the next go-to producer of brillo pop! So yes, rochella solo is shaping up to be quite the intruiging development...

Elouise: God, let me count the ways I adore the music of Elouise. There are a lot. Her live shows just sizzle with energy, enthusiasm and fun. You all know how much I adore her disco-tastic version of One Night Only (Whitney used the same template for A Song For You!), and the gorgeous Terry Ronald track Pretender and Steve Anderson song Another Day are just soaring torch songs that are both timely and timeless. Picking great people to work with is a key ingredient for pop success so Elouise is already on the right track. Now hurry up and release Fireman of My Dreams...


Dean Lennon: How is former Digital boybander (surely time to retire that now) Dean not massive already? He has the tunes, the clothes, the image, the hair and the cheekbones of a popstar - so he's already streets ahead of most :P His tunes have been floating around myspace for a while, but he has let me preview a few of his new ones and they are most excellent in a this is what george michael or prince would sound like if they were still amazing and funky sort of way. And really that's more than one could ask for in a pop star isn't it?

James Leon: I still think that Club With No Name is one of the most engaging new pop tracks of recent years - kind of a more effortlessly cool Party In The USA. Fear not though electro-pop lovers, James has some darker, funkier tracks up his sleeve as evidenced with the grand single, Purple Heart. Whatever your pop preference, I suspect that the upcoming debut will hold something that will delight even the most discerning of pop pickers.

Marina & The Diamonds: I fell and fell hard for Marina early last year when I Am Not A Robot earwormed it's way into my brain. It was (is) a near perfect pretty pop song with substance and depth that got more addictive with each listen and a tune I'm still not tired of. While Marina's songs since then haven't made such an impact with me, that doesn't matter because the standard was set so impossibly high that everything else is still rather wonderful. She seems primed for a big media push in February and I suspect many more people will be diamonds by the end of the year...

Gavin Mikhail: I am a sucker for a guy who plays piano and can create such elegant, lasting melodies and lyrics. Thus, I've stuck by Gavin since I discovered the amazing power pop ballad Brave a couple of years back. I still think the song is one of the most romantic, inspirational tunes I've heard in a long time and a perfect choice for an X Factor winner. Heck, if Joe had sung this I would have been won over. Gavin's talents don't stop there and he has continued to put together an impressive arsenal of new tunes to win over admirers. Beyond You is such a glorious song that I'm hoping it reaches a wide audience very soon - those crashing chords, that singable chorus, the heavenly guitar. Dreamy.

RedBloodedWomen: They have already had their sugababes line up change so you know they are serious about the pop game! They've had some amazing pop songs floating around the internet and gay prides for some time now including the funktastic You Made Your Bed and Enjoy The Silence. Now they are back with some glam new images and new tunes for the new year including the ever so good Relax (which is the type of song the indecisive Saturdays would kill for) and future dancefloor classic Halo. The tunes are there, the stars are aligned, it's time for them to make their entrance into the UK pop game :)

Sparkling Arrest: I must confess I first got into the sparkling arrest because I thought their name was rather brilliant for some reason. That's neither here nor there because I wouldn't have stayed obsessed with their music if it wasn't any good. They create these epic songs that crescendo into magnificence, envelop you into the story they tell and leave you yearning for more. As outstanding as the studio tracks are, I suspect their real magic will come in the live shows when the songs are given that extra energy that come from thousands of people singing along. Be sure to check out anthemic Seventh Sign and the entirely perfect Skyman for a sample of some great songwriting.


Sam taylor: He first came to attention when two of his melancholy songs soundtracked the sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant, always amazing Beautiful People. Since then he's seemingly been rather quiet but has a number of tunes on his myspace that are quite delightful including (at one point) the delicious, spine tingling cover of I Don't Know How To Love Him. There's something quite magical about Sam's pure voice singing the line "and i've had so many men before..." And it is all about his voice - it's smooth and lovely, suited to a variety of genres and could carve him a career as varied and engaging as Will Young. Communication is a dream. Plus he's quite pretty too :P

Adam tyler: I only recently came across Adam Tyler and his enthusiastic brand of electro-pop and I've been quite the smitten little kitten ever since. He seems to have encapsulated the enthusiasm for fun, addictive pop that powered the Spice Girls to their creative peak and channelled it into some seriously entertaining tunes. The big old softie has a bit of a romantic side too when he proved he can do big gothic love gone wrong anthems on his recent Ghost of Christmas Past single. However, the season of good will is over, so pick up your dancing shoes and burn some Friction in the new year. Pull shapes indeed :)


Waterloo: When you've got the same management team behind you as the invigorated Same Difference, then you know I'm going to be taking an interest. The foursome became a threesome in 2009, yet their dedication to producing pop songs that reminded you of all the great pop that came before with fun melodies and great choruses was unwavering. Four Letter Word is still the best song that Ace of Base never released, while Break The Habit is a great mid tempo tune. They continue to be working with some legendary british pop producers so great stuff is coming up...

Killian Wells: Who the hell is Killian Wells is a question that will be on the lips of many people in 2010. He's taken a cheeky swipe at the world of pop with his great dance tune VIP and has many more great songs up his sleeve. Encapsulating 80s electro influences into a modern sounding pop world, Killian has a great deep voice that adds warmth and passion to his tunes and always gets me coming back for more. Thoroughly charming fella too, and a big supporter of the NoH8 campaign. Plus he was in a Kelly Rowland video! Stardom beckons!!

THE NEW:
Candy Coated Chaos - Masquerade: In the days of myspace and internet music, it is far easier for the world to see burgeoning new pop combos blossom as they hone their craft and prepare to launch themselves onto a somewhat suspecting public. Part of me thinks this is a shame (imagine if we'd heard every spice girls demo before Wannabe smacked the world upside the head - the impact would have been far less), but sometimes it totally works. This is the case with the CCC girls - they have increased in confidence with each song and this is their finest to date. An absolute stomper of pop-dance single that not only pays tribute to the freestyle girl groups of the 90s (Expose, Cover Girls, Sweet Sensation) with it's intoxicating rhythms and pounding bass, but also manages to sound utterly relevant and now with a chorus to kill for and their tightest and most pleasing vocal performance to date. It apparently takes about 2-3 years for acts i like to become huge, so CCC should be massive right about, er, now. Expect to hear this on a radio near you very soon. Oh and be sure to check out their myspace for a plethora of other quality pop songs, all competing to be on their debut album. Loves. (Check out Mel's review here!) (You can also hear CCC and Simon Curtis music here)

Red Blooded Women - Enjoy The Silence: Count backwards 5-4-3-2-1 because a new british girl group is in the wings and waiting to explode. And frankly there is more than enough room for them. The debate about this DM cover vs The Saturdays DM cover is getting tiresome now - the songs are completely different, and it's hard enough to compare the originals to each other. JCGE is entirely a Vince Clarke composition and maybe the most Erasure-ish song the Mode ever did, even before Erasure ever existed. Enjoy The Silence is a much moodier, less frenetic pop type number and RBW totally play that up by weaving in delicious electro synth, a persistant and enticing beat and sultry vocals that give the song a new edge. The blogs are positively crackling with positive energy towards this group and i'm dying to hear this on the radio. It's 1990 and it's 2009. The girls sound lush. Loves part 2. (Check out some earlier reviews of RBW here , here and here)

THE POTENTIAL LEGENDS:


The Saturdays - Work/Chasing Lights: You know, it took a little time for me to get the Saturdays, but now i feel all protective towards them. I think they have got a "bum" rap with their comic relief single. Everyone is quick to point out that it didn't make number one (hey, neither did Bananarama with the glorious Help!) and that it wasn't as good as the other DM cover out there (my thoughts on that are above!) and they were a bit desperate on twitter this weekend! All true, but they probably didn't have much input into the song, it's quite delightful as a campy 80s throwback with modern leanings and it veers between brilliancy and adequacy which makes it quite good over all. Anyway, seeing as LesSamedi have called their tour Work, I'm rather hoping that spunky little album track will be gussied up as their fourth single from the increasingly edible Chasing Lights album. And if they would like to put a nice acoustic version of the title track on the flip side, I'll be more than happy to oblige with a purchase. And obviously Up remains one of the best pop songs of the past year or so,

THE REIGNING CHAMPS:

Girls Aloud - Untouchable: This could be one of the worst choices of Girls Aloud singles ever. Not because it's a bad song. It's not. It's blindingly beautiful and utterly amazing from start to finish. Nicola's vocals are very lovely indeed. It has exquisite lyrics and a trance-dance feel that is difficult to pull off, but the Girls do it perfectly. It's fiercely beloved by fans and therein lies the problem - will they accept anything less than the full album version of 6mins+? A radio edit/mix would have to be incredibly tight and certainly won't please everyone. I guess the first peak at this will be when the Girls appear on the top rated Dancing On Ice programme on Sunday, where skating legends Torville and Dean will swoop around the ice to the track, while the lasses sing AN EDITED VERSION suspended by high wires, flying around. It could be utterly heavenly. I await to be (girls a)wowed.

Tomorrow: Possibly Erik Hassle (amazing) or Kevin Borg (adorable). Or nothing at all. Who knows?!

I'm proper ill (in the way that women scornfully say "oh. man flu" and make you want to cough your germs all over them). I was all shivery last night, with clammy pammy syndrome, which then turned into sweaty betty syndrome overnight. Today I am just beyond exhausted and my IBS (without going into gruesome details) is well playing up. boo that whore. Frankly, I totally blame Adem with An E who was ill in our MSN chat the other day, so clearly he has passed his ill gotten germs onto me :P I hate being ill because of someone else when there were no fluids involved. Here are some other reasons I may have "the lurgy"...

I tripped over a pig's head on the way to work, thus breaking my umbrella, looking like a goon and probably putting me in toxic shock (note: just looked up toxic shock. It's probably more likely to be shock, i feel!) Yes it looks like a chicken, but look closer people...

I then was very wet and arrived to work looking like this. Which frankly is not a great look unless you are in a pop video or a porn video, and the master's houseboy is beckoning you to "cum and dry by the roaring fire" in a stable.

Anyway, while I pity myself, here are some things I was going to blog about in depth, but now just get a bullet point. It's basically things making me happy while I am ill....

• Oh i'm a good six months behind with Vanessa Amorosi but her single Perfect is actually quite lovely. It reminds me of a Pink ballad...
• Talking of whom, XO and D'Luv have very accurate assessments of her new single. I really like it. It took me a while to appreciate I'm Not Dead, but i ultimately loved that album...
• Reruns of Ellen before she went all politically lesbian correct and Sunset Beach are just brillo daytime, laying on the couch, drinking lucozade, tv...
• And finally, I've been following Red Blooded Women for a while now so am looking forward to reading Bobbypop's review of their showcase the other night. They are spreading all over the web. Try and research their names though people! it's CANDY!! Still all publicity is good publicity :)

• 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.