Lopez Blogs

I am full of cold. My nose needs a plunger. My eyes have porters to carry the bag (don't forget to tip). Every part of body aches (except bizarrely, my left foot). And I accidentally just took 2 headache tablets with the same ingredients as the lemsip which i took an hour before, so I may very well be dead by the end of this post. How ghastly. I feel like the Balderlaire children in A Series of Unfortunate Events (that should have been a series of 1 hour Nickelodeon cartoons rather than a movie franchise). I am getting delirious. On with the posticles...

The pop stalwarts...

• P!nk ~ Raise Your Glass: I am loving all the nitty gritty dirty little freaks in P!nk's new single from her upcoming 10 years in the biz greatest hits album. It - like the majority of P!nk singles - is a very good song indeed and smashingly catchy. It's a Max Martin number so it has pop goodness baked into the very core of it's essence and is one of those communal, come and join the party, singalong numbers that P!nk does so well - and delivers with such irreverent bombast. Lyrically, it's very fun and a great getting ready to go out on a Saturday night type tune with a brilliant celebratory feel. So not only a champion single, but a blasting choice to represent the greatest hits. Score (PS check out the comments for what I think should be the greatest hits tracklisting)...
• McFly ft Taio Cruz ~ Shine A Light: Aw, those crazy McFly scamps are all grown up (and buff). They continue to go back to the future with their more dance orientated sound and even rope in Taio Cruz to give them a hand on their new single. The result still remains a bit of a shock compared to their older stuff, but it's fair to say that the shimmering pop sheen of this tune still has all the elements of their earlier music (big chorus, catchy, energetic) just wrapped up in a different bow. What's rather good (other than those enticing "eh eh eh"s in the chorus) about this track is that it actually gets better and more rewarding with each listen compared to the more immediate Party Girl. It's a new McFly but one I'm totally down with...
• Westlife ~ Safe: You really can't go wrong with a bit of the 'Loife if that is your cup of tea. And it is (my cup of tea). I'm still a bit sad that their last album was abandoned far too quickly - an X Factor performance weeks before it was released and then no other singles, though I could have chosen at least four. Yet it still sold over 600k in the UK, so still has a sizeable fan base out there. Their new song is an uplifting and soaring tune that Westlife are well known for. There are some lovely harmonies and young Mark does a sterling vocal effort on the second verse that shows what a gifted fella he is. It's also nice to prominently hear Kian and Nicky (rar!) in the mix too. Looking forward to the inevitable X-Factor performance of this :)

Coming soon: Brandon Flowers & Darin video breakdown; F**k you, but not who you think; singles from pop up and comers; singer songwriters spesh! PLUS THE X FACTOR LIVE SHOWS!!!!!

EDIT: Possibly the best blogger post ever...
EDIT2: SPECTACULAR leaps to #44 on the Billboard 200!!
I know I said I was going to do some more singles reviews today of "exciting" songstresses like Lenka, Laleh, Marit and Eloise, but I just wasn't in the mood. Plus like a proper numptee, I realised I had already written about Lenka singing the glorious Trouble Is A Friend and Marit chirping about The Chase here. Eloise deserves a post of her own such is her magnificence, and Laleh, well I'm sure i'll get around to her at some point. Instead, here are 5 albums that I was aware of and listened to when released but for whatever reason got shoved onto the "discard" pile until I was drawn back to them with a vengence this past couple of weeks (and no, Lady Gaga isn't on the list!)....

Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke: Why on earth I metaphorically shoved the Ladyhawke cd to the back of the closet is a mystery. A mystery that may never be solved. I listened to her album on a whim a couple of weeks ago when I was hankering for an ear burst of the glorious My Delirium. Beyond that anthemic fist pumping classic, I found that I had been missing out on a whole bunch of equally beautifully produced, 80s inspired pop tunes that are positively shimmering with 80s allusions, yet still sound fresh and inspired. So this isn't Stefy 2.0 at all then. Magic is a ballsy pedal to the metal type singalong track that just rattles along like an out of control rollercoaster, while Another Runway and Crazy World are delicious 80s throwbacks dripping in nostalgia. However, current favourite has to be the soon-to-be-rereleased Paris Is Burning ~ like most of the tracks here, it's steeped in 80s influences but still innovative enough to sit alongside popstars du jour such as Little Boots and LaRoux. Utterly cracking.
Coldplay - Viva La Vida: I've always had a bit of a cool relationship with Coldplay, possibly because i think it borders on child abuse to call your child Apple for crying out god's sake. However, when I put my ridiculous prejudices aside, I begrudgingly admit that Mr Martin is one of Britain's best singer songwriters. I'm STILL obsessed with the title track and think that it is one of the best songs to come out of Britain in the past five years. Those strings, the soaring chorus, the near perfect vocal delivery - it's all cosy enough for radio but epic enough for huge stadium performances too. And so I thought I would give the album a bit of a try. The hallmarks of their previous albums are there (emotive lyrics, strong melodies, gentle rock rhythms) but are mixed with a more experimental Coldplay than we've previously seen - african and latin influences, mixing up the structure of songs, instrumental tracks, kitchen sink, etc. It's all entirely pleasing, and as I may have mentioned before, I'm rather taken with the XO track listing which mixes the best from the album with the best from the Prospeks March EP. Genius...
Pink - Funhouse: The thing about Pink is she is always there isn't she? Solid, reliable, churning out fairly regular albums and hits, so I don't always give her time she is entitled to this far into what has been a fairly decent career. It's the lovely new single Please Don't Leave Me that has drawn me back to this album - yes, So What is a great thrusty pop song, but it always seemed a bit gimmicky to me (though the remixes are aces) and that put me off the album a little bit. Retitle this album to it's rumoured original ("Heartbreak is a motherf***er!") and it perfectly sums up the range of emotive pop song and rock balladry contained within. The eventual title track is demonically destructive - there's bitterness in the breeziest of her pop tunes, and that I like. Mean puts most of Kelly Clarkson's most recent album to shame with it's southern fried chicken rock roots and an amazing vocal performance. And the entirely romantic Glitter In The Air evokes gorgeous imagery and is simply more powerful for it. I'm kicking myself for not having the whole album on repeat earlier :(
Cyndi Lauper - Bring Ya To The Brink/Donna Summer - Crayons: Frankly I wasn't sure that Donna could top the mighty SAW produced album Another Place and Time. And I'm not sure Crayons does, but my yen this month to revisit Donna has made me realise what an upbeat, unapologetic, in your face album this is. Similarly, the latest dance epic from Cyndi is perfectly designed for the clubs and puts many of her younger peers to shame. Neither album is deliberately rooted in the past and neither do they pander to current trends (except when Donna gets a bit vocoder-ised which can be slightly annoying) - instead they mix the sounds they are most comfortable with from their respective pasts with intoxicating rhythms, beats and melodies that make for two should-have-been career revitalising sets. Play Cyndi's gyrating pulsing synths of Into The Nightlife with it's cheeky flirtatious lyrics alongside Donna's fun, frothy and respect commanding Stamp Your Feet and this twofer whammy makes me even more incredulous of some of today's leading electro-dance ladies successes. I know DanUSA, XO and Chartrigger all liked these in the past, so I am once again chagrinned for not enjoying these on the whole mostly super albums earlier...

Other more recent albums I'm still loving: Take That "The Circus"; Lily Allen "It's Not Me, It's You"; Same Difference "Pop"

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 :)