The last week has been a bit threadbare for posts. Sorry.. I know I should be capitalising on the influx of readers from the link on Popjustice. I also think some Dutch people are laughing at me.

Anyway. First up is Surferosa's rather corking Saturday Night single, which is noisy, sharp and catchy and is deservedly doing rather well for them. Secondly, while nothing on the Divine Comedy album is anywhere near as good as the single promises, The Happy Goth at least comes a close second. Thirdly, the bizarre Travel Girl is there, and lastly, and not least, the collaboration between JC Chasez and Basement Jaxx from the former's album, Shake It is every bit as good as it should be, and that's very very good indeed. (Specifically selected to make Nick happy.) 
# 11:52 PM []

KAKSIO - Ajattelen Sua

This, to me, sounds exactly like what Kylie's Slow was trying to be - minimal groove, half-spoken half-sung words that are more percussive than the sounds around them, but this has got so much more - a better bassline, a fuller melody, sharper beats (maybe a bit trip-hop influenced?) and an honest-to-goodness cello (I think) and a guitar underneath the breakdown - permanently in a state of flux between chorus and verse too rather than having one following the other, and the Finnish language is beautiful on the ears in this sort of pop music. 
# 11:41 PM []

HITCH HIKE - Travel Girl

Greek dance pop, but it doesn't sound like it. "I'm what you would call a travel girl, see I left home at 16 and been on the road ever since... and I've seen some crazy shit, man". Of course, you probably wouldn't call anyone a travel girl, but anyway, that she is, and she tells you about her adventures over chunky, chugging and vaguely hypnotic guitar interludes, and a big chugging riff in the chorus over a beat, and breaks them up with a mantra-like chorus "I am a travel girl/I travel round the world/My only friend is the one that picks me next". She sounds coolly detached, dismissive and completely at home with the slightly strange word choices in the chorus. Travel Girl doesn't sound like a hardened traveller though, or perhaps she's clocked too many miles to feel and is standing well back. Either way, it's pretty effective - something about the mix of those repetitive choruses and the spoken verses takes me back to the mid-90s, and the overall feel is a few years older than that again, which is always a good thing.

(EDIT: Actually, I don't know where this song's from originally, but it is in the Greek top 10 and doesn't seem to have been on any other chart... someone correct me if I'm wrong) 
# 4:34 PM []

GEBROEDERS KO - Tringeling

Imagine, if you will, that instead of driving a big party bus, the Vengaboys returned, and because they have no money, they had to get around on a bicycle. And they wrote a song about it and didn't let the girls sing on it. The most insistent, repetitive and daft Eurodance stomper imaginable (this month, anyway), with a big fat cheesy synth AND an accordion AND the sound of a little bell ringing. Oh, and a chorus that once lodged in your brain, will send you delirious or senile, as relentless as a military march but with the tempo of techno. It'll lodge in your brain even if you don't have a clue what it says.

Pure Dutch madness. Oh, and they had another song before this called Tuut and if that is even half as gleefully stupid as this, 'm going to be grinning moronically all week. Rather fitting, that looking for the lyrics (not that I'd understand them), I kept getting led to a place called www.moron.nl - how eerie is that? 
# 5:05 PM []

JARI SILLANPÄÄ - It Takes 2 To Tango

This is Finland's entry in the Eurovision 2004 song contest. Hopefully, I'll have reviewed them all before the big night, so I'll be able to predict who will romp to glory. It won't be this, everything about it is far too slick and calculated - it's pushing every one of my buttons at once, but it doesn't have the killer hook that wins the competition.

What it sounds like is bits of lots of other songs glued together, done quite well, sung by a slightly annoying guy who sounds a bit too pleased with himself - bellowing out the tragic rhyming couplets. If you don't like it, you just have to wait five seconds and it'll sound like something else completely. Some good bits are the female "hallelujah" backing vocals, the clipped, cutting strings after the chorus, the Spanish guitar-like processed noises before the pre-chorus, the build into the chorus itself, and the big, obvious and rather pleasing key change. The oddest thing is the intriguing intro, sounds vaguely movie soundtrack for about 2 seconds before the thudding beat comes in and it's like a completely different song. It's good stuff, definitely, but it'd be a weak field this one wins in.

Someone whose brain is a little less cluttered could probably work out which song each bit sounds exactly like, and hopefully someone will do so because it's driving me a bit nutty. Does give me an excuse to listen to it multiple times, won't complain about that. 
# 4:48 PM []

MP3s this week, then. Raghav and Cypress Hill are there, I love them, you might not. Also, one of the UK-only bonus tracks on the Scissor Sisters' album is there - Get It Get It it's called, and it's growing on me even though I've said elsewhere it's only "okay" - but given that the UK gets singles and the US doesn't, what need they have for bonus tracks eludes me - why not give everyone everything? Also, I really, really like the Erik Faber album, it's probably my favourite of the year so far, so if you liked Century, you'll probably appreciate this one as well. 
# 4:31 PM []