New Mp3s. While in actual fact I can't find any evidence that this is even a single, the aforementioned
Cool-T's Paradise does get a few mentions on the European chart messageboard at Top40-Charts, and it does appear on One-T's album, so what the hey, it's there for you, as is The Streets, and I've realised the reason I like
Dry Your Eyes so much is because all the elements in it - spoken word verses, minimal but emotional chorus, sparse strings - remind me of the original album mix of Atomic Kitten's
Whole Again and that is - really - meant as high praise. Also, since I got such a good reaction from
Cobrastyle, here's another Teddybears Sthlm track, this also coming from their album Fresh!, released earlier this month. It's a pretty funky instrumental. And lastly, and perhaps leastly, the swansong from the A*Teens,
I Promised Myself. Do yourself a favour and check out their last two albums, they were pretty solid Scando-pop with some incredibly high points on them.
ONE-T - Cool-T's Paradise
One-T and Cool-T's 2003 Eurohit
The Magic Key, has, thanks to mentions on some prominent blogs outside mainland Europe, garnered quite a bit of a following amongst listeners who probably thought they knew better than to fall for a super-sweet bit of pop confection about being popped in the oven with the dial set to lovin'.
Anyway, this is the follow-up single, and while it's immediately recognisable as the handiwork of the same people, there's a more laid-back, sunning on the beach feel to this track, and Cool-T does not rap in it, and the chorus is sung by a guy in almost a reggae style. It's relaxed and relaxing, very catchy and it features THAT instrument I love but whose name I can't place. Someone is going to name it in the comments box, yes... you! You know the one, it was in Janet Jackson's
Go Deep and Ozomatli's
Cut Chemist Suite and probably loads of other things. Next Mp3 update (later tonight) will have this song so those waiting for it (and they ARE out there), can have it.
The last few pop singles I downloaded...
...all in one entry, because I can't be bothered writing separates.
CHEYNE - I've Got Your Number
I saw the video for this last week and couldn't decide whether I liked it or not, so I downloaded and took another listen. I still am on the fence. Cheyne was in Madison Avenue, so you'd be correct to expect nagging hooks, both lyrical and melodic. It's just that this one doesn't hook enough.. it's a smooth dance groove, but it doesn't engage. Good pre-chorus, but the pay-off just isn't there. And I say this as someone who even dug
Everything You Need, sad case that I am.
TATA YOUNG - Sexy, Naughty, Bitchy
I've been reading about this song for a while, so big up to
Tyrone Shoelaces for posting it. Unfortunately, it's really not that good. I'm reminded of Willa Ford, and that's not a good thing. Don't say you're sexy/naughty/bitchy, Young, just be it. Of course, that would require a more substantial song than this, which sounds half-finished to be honest. It'll probably get a release wider than its native Thailand. I do like the middle eight - "sexy sexy sex-eee! naughty naughty naught-eee! bitchy bitchy bitch-eee!" though. And it does have a good key change. But the phrasing and word choices in the chorus are too redolent of Xtina's
Dirrty, but without the club bite.
YETI & PINGU - Yeti Song
I am not immune to the appeal of the novelty single, no matter how high my aspirations might be. This has pops, blurps, nonsensical lyrics - and noises - sung by a variety (actually, it might only be two, but I can't keep track) of extremely stupid voices, and is called
Yeti Song. Oh, and the bubbly instrumental break makes me dance like a loon. In my chair. As if you need a higher recommendation than that. Your first two listens of this will be your happiest seven minutes in recent memory, it'll then be torturous, but disposability is to be cherished. I mean, it's not as if you have to wait a long time between obnoxiously good novelty bits, do you? Actually, it sounds like the music from one of the Sonic The Hedgehog games on the Master System. That's going back a fair way, isn't it?
SPECIAL D - There's Nothing I Won't Do
Scooter, to credit their hyperactivity, aimed their sites low. As if making Supertramp more danceable was hard - Special D attempt something a bit more tricky, tackling a bona-fide dance classic, originally by JX, and attempting to make it even more manic. But there's no heart in it, it stomps all around the place - but with significantly less energy than Special D's last two singles,
Come With Me and
Home Alone, except in the nonsensical break where the singer exhorts you to "move your arse" - in the end, it's a completely new song, and the interpolation of a much better record doesn't do it any favours. Besides, as any fool knows, the best JX single was
You Belong To Me anyway.
A*TEENS - I Promised Myself
A cover of the apparently classic Nick Kamen number - I like covers - which oddly reminds me in quite a few parts of
Give Me Your Love by Fame (I say this only to excite my sister's friend Kate who I know is reading), unusual amongst A*Teens singles - of which this will be the last - both by it having the girls subservient partners to the boys rather than dominant or equal, and by the fact that the build to the climax is, you know, rather subtle, rather than instant and pounding like their best. It's still a great song, though, a fitting finale that should eat Scandinavia and be ignored nearly everywhere else.
CORRS - Summer Sunshine
Disclaimer: I own and love Talk On Corners, and also love no less than four other Corrs singles (
Breathless, Give Me A Reason, Forgiven Not Forgotten, Love To Love). The opening riff does that Elastica trick of invoking
Three Girl Rhumba, but we're back in cheery, jaunty pop territory here, sadly without the 70s-era Fleetwood Mac touches that made
Breathless so thrilling. It's still listenable, but the chorus just doesn't have it, even though the sweep into it from the verses is pretty impressive. The verses don't have it either, and since it basically just goes from one to another and back again, this is pretty lacklustre.
AVRIL LAVIGNE - Take Me Away
Okay, she was working with Ben Moody from Evanescence, right? This track betrays the Evanescence influence, not because it's pop-gothy - it isn't - but rather than the Alanis-but-bouncier of her first album, we have melodrama, grand sweeping emotion and desperation. I like to think of it as a little sister to Anastacia's
Left Outside Alone actually, but with the economy of running only three minutes. A sure-fire Number One single in waiting, actually.
