Lopez Blogs

I'm fully into my new year post Christmas blues funk. I get it every year. Annually you might say. This year as well as flattening my spirits, it has chosen to manifest itself physically too! I have a rash all over my hands (mmm, attractive) and my back is aching like a mother. Plus i think i'm getting a cold sore. Form an orderly queue fellas! New years was quite nice (see pic above) - not too hectic, just fun in a not too crowded bar with some friends. Of course I had Jools Holland on record and got to witness some simply stunning performances over a cup of Horlicks on new years day. Read on my pretties, read on!!

Kylie ~ Try Your Wings (Blossom Dearie cover):

You can always rely on Kylie. I'm still in love with All The Lovers and the entire Aphrodite album six months on (my top single and album of 2010), and have been completely smitten with her additional performances that have come about on her promotional stints for the album. Her cover of Hurts Wonderful Life was effortlessly elegant; her studied reading and new version of Can't Get You Out Of My Head bought new meaning and nuance to an extremely familiar tune; her festive couplet of tunes were both cheeky and warming at the same time. She's topped off the year with a completely wonderful performance of an already delightful tune by the legendary Blossom Dearie. Looking stunning on top of a grand piano, she sweetly sung a darling melody and surrounded herself with a tempered arrangement that let her vocal and the delicate tune fly. Imagine a full album of tunes done in this style! Bodes exceptionally well for the Aphrodite tour...

Rumer ~ Aretha:


Oh Rumer. How captivated I am by your deliciously smooth vocal style that evokes memories of sadly gone but not forgotten greats such as Karen Carpenter and Dusty Springfield. How magical I am finding your debut album, which is filled with timeless torch songs and emotive, evocative melodies. The Rumer sings Bacharach at Christmas EP was definitely an added treasure to tag onto something that was already totally an understated triumph. So what a way to top off the year - a mesmerising performance of the gorgeous single Aretha on Jools Holland, that showcased the gorgeous vocal totally in it's element against a sumptuous backdrop of orchestra and horn section. 2011 is going to be an amazing year for this singer and this is one album you should lock into now...

Bette Midler ~ Glory of Love:


New Years Eve 2009 was one of the best ever. Darren and I were having a marvelous little sojourn in Vegas and scored tickets to see the divine Ms M at her new years eve show which was absolutely spiffy. Fast forward a year and the taping of that very show airs on HBO on New Years Eve 2010. Utterly amazing. I'm sure you can see my ear at one point :) This means it is very likely to come out on dvd very soon. Please. Anyway, for those of you who can afford a subscription to HBO in these credit crunch times, you will know that one of the highlights was a stripped back, ukelele version of the Glory of Love. It was heartfelt, it was earnest and it was poignantly beautiful. The perfect message with which to ring a new year of hope, joy and people being kind to each other. Sniffle...

Back soon with more new music!

Crikey - another year has flown by. Remember when you were little and your birthday would take forever to arrive and Christmas would never come at all? Now they seem to be arriving as regularly as my daily ablutions (charming). Still, inevitably there is good and bad things to bid farewell to and a new year to look forward to. I quite like New Year's Resolutions - sure they are a bit corny and people don't always stick to them, but they give you hope, something to aim for and by the time you remember you haven't stuck to them you won't care anyway :) Thanks for stopping by myfizzypop this past year. You've all been tremendous. Happy 2011 ~ here's my fave new years related toons...

1. Abba ~ Happy New Year: I got a bit mad if I don't hear this timely and timeless tune within a few hours of the clock striking twelve. Much like any abba song, there is something heartbreakingly sad about it mixed with the hope and optimism that a fresh start can bring. Always brings a tear to my eye, especially the gorgeous video above (when you consider they were close to splitting up as group). Unsurpassable to this day.
2. Bette Midler ~ What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?: I love a bit of Bette. Darren and I saw her last new year's eve (which I believe is the show that will be playing on HBO tonight! Someone tivo it for me!) and it was one of our most delightful new year's ever. She makes this tune sound both wistful, pleading and dignified all at the same time. No mean feat. Who doesn't love being serenaded?
3. Forgotten Carols ~ I Cry The Day They Take The Tree Down: Look, ok. It may be from a mormon musical, but it's still one of my favourite Christmas musicals of all time. It's ridiculously feelgood, except for this melancholy tune about wanting the Christmas season to last all year round. I presume there is a message in there somewhere about how it should be in your heart all the live long year, etc., but i do get a bit sad and blue when the tree comes down on New Year's day...
4. Sugababes ~ New Year: It's the babes before they became Stuart Baggs The Brand (or something). Before the catfights. Before the scandal, back when it was sort of pure and innocent (depending on who you ask). When it was all about the music, man. This was a quite lovely single from when they were criminally on the verge of being dropped by their record label. The fools. This is mint!
5. Dina Carroll ~ Perfect Year: Lovely, should still be massive by rights Dina was still actually in the charts with one of my fave songs ever (Don't Be A Stranger) when this tune came out. A delightfully pure ballad from some Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, she sang the heck out of it and it has been a NY staple ever since. Charming...
6. Mariah Carey ~ Auld Lang Syne: Hurrah! mariah's second Christmas album wasn't half bad at all and one of the surprise treats was a slow to disco version of the one minute past midnight celebratory song that always gets wheeled out. It's a disco inferno that will only work once a year so i'll be in a right mood if it doesn't get played tonight. Best bit - "does anybody really know the words?" Yes. I do.
7. Kylie ~ Celebration: For some godforsaken reason, this only made number 20 in the charts. Obviously, the British public meant for it to make number 2, but got it wrong. It's not strictly a new year song but does anyone really care because a) it's Kylie and b) it sounds blooming glorious when there are streamers going everywhere, booze being spilt all over your expensive ensemble and strangers snogging you with halitosis. Only Kylie can make all of that seem like a party :)
8. A*Teens ~ Happy New Year: Let's end the list the way it was started, only not in quite a glorious rendition as Abba do. It's a sterling effort despite the rather nasal "end of the paaaaar-dee" and quite nice to have some male vocals in there. I think I want A*Teens to reform nearly but not quite as much as I want Abba to sing at Katilliams wedding...

Top 21 songs of the week (last chart of 2010!)

21 ~ P!nk, Raise Your Glass
20 ~ A1, In Love & I Hate It
19 ~ Andrea Lewis & Simon Curtis, Talk To Me
18 ~ Joe McElderry, Someone Wake Me Up
17 ~ Gabriella Cilmi, Defender
16 ~ Take That, The Flood
15 ~ EMD, What Is Love?
14 ~ Kylie, Better Than Today
13 ~ Eric Saade, I'm Still Loving It (NE/VID)
12 ~ LeKid, We Should Go Home Together
11 ~ Erik Hassle, Standing Where You Left Me 2010
10 ~ Bjorn Johan Muri, Nobody Knows
09 ~ Rochella Danishei ft Simon Curtis, Michelle (NE)
08 ~ Gravitonas, You Break Me Up
07 ~ Daniel Boys, To Make You Feel My Love
06 ~ Matt Cardle, When We Collide
05 ~ Darin, Drowning
04 ~ Tove Styrke, White Light Moment
03 ~ Elouise, You'll Never Walk Alone
02 ~ Same Difference/Alcazar, Karma Karma!
01 ~ One Direction, Forever Young (2 weeks)

Bette Midler's recent pisstake of Madonna, her accent and her vacuum cleaning (see youtube video above) reminds me that a) her vegas souvenir cd that Dazpants purchased after her show in March is on worldwide release now and b) that due to Mr Panteloon's obsessive worship of her, I quite like that crass, filthy mouthed granny. Frankly, I'm far more musically slutty than Darren is. While he only masks his tolerance of Deborah Gibson beneath a thin veneer of contempt, I have wholly embraced his Ms. Midler :) Oh sure, I was aware of films like Beaches (sob) and For The Boys (heartwarming), and some of the bigger hits like Wind Beneath My Wings (increasingly annoying and mawkish as time went on) and From A Distance (still quite charming actually). However, in my nearly 9 years with Darren, I've learnt of lots of lovely new tunes. Sadly many of these do not appear on Jackpot: The Best Bette. Here are some of my faves (in no particular order):

1. Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy ~ long before Christina was hand jobbing with the Candyman, Bette had tapped the 40s vibe from the Andrews Sisters with her many renditions of this horn blasted catchy little tune
2. The Rose ~ not the version from the film, but the rather ace version Bette has to whiz through on her tv show "Bette" at a funeral when she is late for the Oprah show. Brilliant!
3. God Help The Outcasts ~ from the ace disney film Hunchback of Notre Dame. Hey i'm a shameless whore for ballads from Disney cartoons...
4. Somewhere In My Memory ~ from Home Alone 2, this is a gorgeous festive ballad that should've been included on her fun Christmas set "Cool Yule"
5. Otto Titsling ~ the REAL highlight from Beaches is this bawdy vaudevillian romp through the invention of the world's first over the shoulder boulder holder. Hurrah!
6. One More Round ~ more than just a throwaway opening album track, this repetitive round of hand claps and harmonies latches onto your memory after just one play. It's insanely addictive and rather brilliant.
7. Gift of Love ~ another lovely ballad and horribly overlooked single from her Some People's Lives album. Smooth vocal and a rather dreamy chorus make this perfect for some idol winner to sing...
8. Slow Boat To China ~ Bette back with my favourite 70s crooner Barry Manilow on this cheeky little lyrical tradeoff. I'm a fanilow of the Manilow...
9. Mambo Italiano ~ why this didn't have some slamming remixes like some of her other ace dance tunes such as In These Shoes, To Deserve You and I'm Beautiful Dammit, is frankly beyond me.
10. Billy A Dick - another 40s gem from For The Boys. Though for years and years, I thought the lyrics were "Billy a dick billy a dick, tic tacs. When's that kit kat coming back?" Apparently those are not the lyrics.

Tomorrow: Back to the 00s with album review of Travis and Kaiser Chiefs...