Gosh, well lots to get through today people. Without saying too much though, how VERY disappointing was the fall finale of Lost last night? I can't help but feel it would have been much better if ABC had held over the show and premiered it in January for an uninterrupted run a la 24. But what would i know?? I can't be greedy and be a tv advisor as well as guiding pop careers in danger of veering off "the rails". That would be selfish. Today i have the exciting task of booking our airport parking for our holiday in a few weeks. And i think we may hire a car while we are there. Ruthiepoos is in Gran Canaria right now, and has apparently been to some dodgy leather clubs with some Danish bears. Saucy...
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THE VOICE:
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It's not very often I click open a myspace page and am totally halted in my tracks by the stunning vocals of one of the many myspace music acts out there. But when i was looking through some of my friends that i had just randomly accepted adds from, I clicked on Daniel Kirkley's page and that's exactly what happened. His stunning baritone (?) voice was wrapped around a track called My New Dawn, which not only features his soaring vocal (somewhat akin to Josh Groban, but somehow more accessible); but swirling strings, a gorgeous piano melody and great inspirational lyrics in the verse and catchy chorus. Indeed, I can actually see Westlife "borrowing" this track for their 2007 Christmas single. To be honest, it's shocking to hear this great voice come from this unassuming guy - it's such a powerful vocal. And you know that I have to have likeability in my popstars... Daniel has put a webisode of the making of his My New Dawn single on his myspace site, and he comes across as a thoroughly grounded and likeable chappy. Plus, he has good popstar hair and that is always a huge plus. I'm eager to hear more from this rising star...
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LINK: Daniel's myspace site
LINK: Daniel's official site
LINK: Purchase Daniel's Points of Grace cd
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THE CALIFORNIA DREAMERS:
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The Magic Numbers second album "Those The Brokes" shows that they are indeed channelling the spirits of Wilson Phillips. Sacrilege? Not at all - La Phillips remain one of my very fave girl groups of all time and I adored The Magic Numbers debut cd... both acts (although a good 15 years apart) had debut albums full of breezy sun drenched pop tunes soaked in tight harmonies and strumming guitars. Indeed, Ruthiepoos and I can't imagine seeing MN play in the winter as it wouldn't seem right... However, whereas WP embodied all that was perky and upbeat in their songs, the perky music of Magic Numbers hid lyrics of heartbreak and betrayal, a theme that both acts tackled on their second albums. For Wilson Phillips, it was a more mature, certainly darker effort for them - and ultimately, less successful, which led to the band splitting for 13 years. The Magic Numbers second album however, stays faithful to the style of the first, which if you liked it, is great. The question is, is it different enough to attract new fans? Well, lead off single (the glorious Take A Chance), This Is A Song and You Never Had It are radio friendly hits waiting to happen. Yet mid album you come across Undecided where a more bluesy rootsy sound takes hold - and works incredibly well. Overall a solid sophomore set that may not win new fans, but will certainly solidify the substantial base they already have...
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And while we're at it, what's with the rubbishy Wilson Phillips greatest hits collections floating around? After the perfectly pleasant California covers album came out 2 years ago, it was the perfect time to put together all WP group stuff, some Chynna solo and The Wilsons album into one collection, like so...
- Hold On
- Release Me
- Impulsive
- You're In Love
- The Dream Is Still Alive
- Daniel
- You Won't See Me Cry (mp3)
- Give It Up
- Flesh and Blood
- It's Only Life
- I Hear You (mp3)
- Chynna Phillips - Naked And Sacred (mp3)
- Chynna Phillips - When 2000 Comes
- Chynna Phillips - I Live For You
- The Wilsons - Monday
- The Wilsons - Everything I Ever Need (mp3)
- The Wilsons - Miracle
LINK: Buy Wilson Phillips California cd
MP3: The Magic Numbers - This Is A Song
MP3: The Magic Numbers - Undecided
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THE SHOULD'VE BEENS (an occasional feature):
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Reality pop hasn't been kind to the majority of acts it has spewed out. Alex Parks? Steve Brookstein? One True Voice? And so on and so on... anyway one of the premiere reality pop acts in Britain (this century) was of course Hear'say. 5 kids picked entirely by the judges (this was before the potential for audience involvement was fully realised) it was more MTV real world than the X Factor/American Idol shows you watch today. In two short years Hear'say went from being the hottest band on the planet to a national joke. And i believe it was because their career was mismanaged. They should have led off with great double AA side Bridge Over Troubled Waters/Monday Monday before moving onto their two number one singles Pure and Simple and the superior Show Me The Way To Your Love (that i'm a whizz at on the piano - just ask DazPopsensation...). And they certainly moved onto the second album far too quickly, leaving some gems from an admittedly messy debut unloved. Gentle ballad Carried Away should have been the next single, followed by anthemic Love Never Dies at Christmas (when Everybody was released) - and as it was Christmas, why not throw their cover of Boogie Wonderland as AA side? Then move onto Everybody and be sure to mine the Cathy Dennis penned highlights like Suddenly. Sigh. If only Hear'say had me as a manager, maybe their greatest hits would be more fleshed out than my imaginary one below...
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
- Monday Monday
- Pure and Simple
- The Way To Your Love
- Carried Away
- Love Never Ends
- Boogie Wonderland (mp3)
- Everybody
- Suddenly (mp3)
- Angel In My Heart
- You're All I Need To Get By
- Straight From The Heart
- I Knew You Were Waiting (mp3)
- Lovin' Is Easy
- If You Wanna Roll With Me (unreleased) (mp3)
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Indie Zapping is making a brief return in todays post. Don't worry pop fans! Pop Zapping is still around, he is just momentarily overpowered by Indie Zapping and currently lies tied up at the bottom of a cupboard waiting for some superheroes of pop to rescue him (where are Switch22 when you need them?!) Anyhoo, lets look at a couple of the more indie acts with new songs/albums out in the next few months...
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BRAND NEW ~ Three years ago, nobody but me and a few hundred others were interested in Jesse Laceys long island based band Brand New. Then they released sophomore set Deja Entendu and a half million people joined in for the ride. Now they are working on their much anticipated third album and dealing with the universal acclaim surrounding their music. Good news is that Jesse Lacey joins Brandon Flowers and Adam Levine as the handsome face of indie rock and rumour has it that the 3rd cd - due in just a few weeks - will be the most poppy and experimental yet!
THIRTEEN SENSES ~ This unassuming British act were unfairly labelled as the new Keane back in 2005 and went onto modest success with their debut album, The Invitation, which was littered with anthemic piano charged pop-rock anthems. Standout single Into The Fire was truly lovely and singer Will South has an amazing voice. Check their myspace site for details of their soon to be released sophomore set...
SNOW PATROL ~ now officially huge thanks to Grey's Anatomy and their incessently likeable tunes, la Patrol now release third single Set The Fire To The Third Bar - an early fave with bloggers thanks to the magic touch of Martha Wainwright. It's quite a lovely single as is their cover of a Bright Eyes track, as you will see below. This really has been their year for leaving Keane in the dust...
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LINK: Pre-order Brand New's Devil and God cd
LINK: Buy Thirteen Sense's The Invitation
LINK: Pre-order Snow Patrol's Set The Fire...
MP3: Brand New - The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows
MP3: Thirteen Senses - Into The Fire
MP3: Snow Patrol - You Will You Will (bright eyes cover)
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BLOG WATCH/QUICK BITZ:
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~ Billiam are doing a performance or two at the Children in Need concert in Blackpool on Nov 17th, which is jolly good of them. They are lovely lads and needless to say will outshine others like um, Chico, although we also like Light Era and plan to write something about them soon!
~ The lovely Furey from Dangerous Muse. Now get off your ass and make us some more fab new music...
~ Conor of 7 to watch in 2007 has quite kindly put a free download on his site. And quite the lovely ballad it is too. Thanks geeza!
~ Sigh. My apathy for Keane's second album is only exceeded by their own. The single has been out for three weeks and only now is the video on their myspace...
~ just in case you haven't added Darren or myself to myspace, make sure you do so, but send us a note too saying you came from this site, otherwise I might solicit you without even knowing! Hello Nathan :)
~ Just because we love her, this mp3 here is for Poppostergirl - lets just say it fame at it's most melodifestivilian best...
~ ParAdE of pOp has the Killers performances on Jimmy Kimmel youtubed onto his site - including the increasingly magnificent Bones...
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Coming soon! Oh so very much ~ I absolutely will get round to Lois and Clark's brush with greatness that no one wants to read; Loto!; Jean!; something on Gary Barlow; Books; TV; more up and coming myspacers; my top 20 pop groups of all time; a peak at some upcoming singles; more random stuff i haven't thought of yet; new holiday diaries posts; the 24 days of christmas music and much much more...
Hearsay were always crap though. Crap and annoying in that they havenow multiplied into endless solo tabloid moments and rubbish reality shows. I once sold Myleene a book though and she was nice enough.
Second: Daniel Kirkley. "My New Dawn" is great! The Josh Groban comparison (beware all ye who hate him--I'll be writing about his new album later) is pretty apt...and he's from the US! The Zapping is starting to give me back some of my faith in the US music scene, what with all these MySpace artists...I still think the UK's ahead in the pop sweepstakes, though.
Hear'Say are one of those bands I've heard of but never really listened to...thanks! The "greatest hits" idea is a fun one.
It's great to see Billiam so high in such a long list...even ahead of Jamie Shaw and Michelle Bass (who I admit aren't A-list, but still, they're somewhat famous...sort of).
Thirteen Senses new album is Pants. With skids. Boring Embrace ripoff, sadly. :( I do like "The Salt Wound Routine" from the first one.
You forgot Wilson Phillips song for their maid! "Goodbye Carmen"! And yes, "You Won't See Me Cry" is a classique! I also love "The Dream Is Still Alive" - or wait, is that the one with Carnie on lead and the "oh-eeee-oh's"?
PG - i do think poor Hear'say had a rough deal and had some sparkling songs that maybe with a few radio remixes could have been huge. I really like Daniel too - he's not a bad looking lad either. I have the new Josh Groban album but haven't gotten round to listening to it yet - i think an episode of Ally McBeal introduced me to him...
XO - i know! Myspace will break my heart again and again, but i never learn, and one of them has got to make it at some point right? I'm disappointed to hear 13S album is rubbish. Sigh. It's so hard to get a good second album these days. Yes Keane i'm talking about you... but yay to WP. I think YWSMC is just a timeless classic. I so want them to cover I Want You Now by The Feeling...