Popsessed!

Catching Up: Little Mix - DNA (Acoustic)Entered our weekly song...

Fri, 21 Jun 2013 12:13:46 +0200

Catching Up: Little Mix - DNA (Acoustic)

Entered our weekly song chart in: November 2012
Peaked at: #8

We’ve been gone for 7 months. We can’t go back in time and change that fact. However, we cán go back and catch up on the things we really should have posted about. Because they were too good to miss. Because we think you might like them. And because we do love to reminisce.

Being an X Factor winner with an album that even went top 5 in the US, few people who’d care to know about Little Mix don’t by now. However, for all the non-UK and casual fans, who don’t go out of their way to dig up every possible performance of the band, we couldn’t leave out this little gem in our attempt to catch up on the past few months.

Despite accusations of it shamelessly ripping of ET, DNA was quite a solid second single for the girls, for a big part thanks to its production. Now with quite a few solid pop songs, once you take away the beats, they fall flat, severely lacking some much needed ‘oomph’. With this Loose Women performance, DNA proved to be quite the opposite. Obviously this incarnation of the song won’t fill any floors, but it does really allow the girls’ vocals to shine and adds a whole new layer of emotion to the song. Goosebumps.

Next up: A song from the ’10s greatest 2-piece girl group album… until Heartthrob.

Mutya Keisha Siobhan - Flatline (preview)So it would seem the...

Thu, 13 Jun 2013 22:13:07 +0200

Mutya Keisha Siobhan - Flatline (preview)

So it would seem the release of the Sugababes’ (let’s not overcomplicate things) new single is very near, although you can never be to sure with the pace they’ve been moving at thusfar.

Either way, today they released a preview of Flatline, their first single in 12 years.
Apart from it probably not sounding exactly like their ’00s output, nor sounding like Wear My Kiss ‘13, we are not sure exactly what we were expecting of it, but we definitely weren’t expecting the Coldplay-ish beats and ‘woh’s’. We’ll reserve final judgement for the full thing. As for now, we’re blown away nor disappointed, but it is nice to hear their voices together again.

The Lovely Wars - Young LoveIt’s like popstars got a memo...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 22:00:00 +0200

The Lovely Wars - Young Love

It’s like popstars got a memo that we’re back, because it’s been raining nice pop videos ever since we announced it. The newest, and our favourite of today, is the 2nd single from The Lovely Wars.
In case that doesn’t ring a bell: it’s the new band of Ani Saunders, one of The Pipettes (or actually The one and only Pipette, since Gwenno left the band).

Although The Lovely Wars definitely got their own sound, there’s loads to love here for any Pipettes fan. For starters, the vocals. We’re ashamed to admit that we were so busy seeing Ani as the ‘new Pipette in town’ that we never quite realized how fond we’d grown of her voice.. or maybe it just never got the chance to shine like it does now. Either way, we love it. Second: despite some misleading synths at the start, the whole retro/’50s influence we’ve always loved from artists like The Pipettes, Lucky Soul and the early Cardigans is still there with all its (literal) bells and whistles.

We don’t think Ani put The Pipettes on a break to go out and do the exact same thing with another band, and there obviously are some differences as well, but the fact that the sound isn’t a huge departure from her previous material shows a genuine fondness of the genre, which we, as fellow fans, can only appreciate.

Young Love is the title track of the same-titled EP, and will be out on the 1st of July.

The Lovely Wars on Twitter
The Lovely Wars on Facebook
TheLovelyWars.com

Catching Up:Booty Luv - Black WidowEntered our weekly song chart...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 18:30:00 +0200

Catching Up:
Booty Luv - Black Widow

Entered our weekly song chart in: November 2012
Peaked at: #6

If there’s any pop act that seems to have 9 lives, it’s Booty Luv. As a part of Big Brovaz they got dropped, then resigned, and as a duo they lost their band name, but then got it back again. Meanwhile, despite their last single the general public was aware of stemming from 2009, they’ve kept churning out singles.

Black Widow is their 4th non-album single, and, keeping with the trend set with their previous ones, it’s once again a little less disco, a little more dance than it’s predecessor. Then again, it’s not 2007 anymore, and this song does sound current, while remaining a true Booty Luv song.

Considering how dance has been ‘the new pop’ for a while now, it’s pretty ridiculous that an act who does pop friendly dance as well as Cherise & Nadia can’t seem to get a hit. Black Widow definitely deserved to have at least a chart position. ‘Gonna be the last last love of your life’ is one amazing lyric and hook. Had this been a Rihanna track it probably would have been everywhere. But it’s not, and so we’re here to remind you of its existance.

FIY, the acoustic version is pretty fantastic as well.

Next up: Another stripped down performance that took our breath away.

Eros Ramazzotti ft. Nicole Scherzinger - Fino All’EstasiAs...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:24:22 +0200

Eros Ramazzotti ft. Nicole Scherzinger - Fino All’Estasi

As far as duets go, this one is about as random and unexpected as that Kelly Rowland / Tiziano Ferro one a few years ago.
We also can’t help but think Eros is getting a bit too old for some of those outfits and thát hair, and that the video looks like it was shot during lunch breaks on the day of the Boomerang shoot. But… we actually dó like the song, and especially Nicole’s parts. This is definitely no Cosa Della Vita, but it sure tops I Belong To You.

Catching Up: XELLE - Queen Entered our weekly song chart in:...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:37:00 +0200

Catching Up: XELLE - Queen

Entered our weekly song chart in: October 2012
Peaked at: #3

XELLE are the world’s first girl group with a drag queen member. Mimi Imfurst first found fame on the third season of Rupaul’s Drag Race, so the drag queen angle obviously has always been part of the appeal of the band. Not for us though. It might have played a part in peaking our initial curiosity, but after we’d seen Party Girl they were first and foremost an exciting new girl band with a killer first song and video.

With their third single being called Queen, and its video featuring various other Drag Race contestants it seemed they were milking their unique selling point to the max. This might have bothered us a little if the release had been all gimmick, no subtance, but this song actually had the tune to back it up. With great vocals and production slightly reminiscent of Rihanna’s S&M, Queen is a huge floorfiller that should make even the straightest male feel the urge to unleash their inner queen on the dancefloor.

Following up on the mesmerizing, if sometimes slightly scary, video, the american trio released their all killer debut EP Queens, which, unlike its title might suggest, is also quite a treat to any pop fan who isn’t particularly into drag queens. In march they finished production of the long anticipated interactive video for their 2nd single Hologram.

XELLE on Twitter
XELLE on Facebook
XELLEmusic.com
Our 2011 interview with XELLE

Next up: The last last great girl group single of 2012.

Ralph Myerz ft. Annie - Take A Look At The WorldThroughout the...

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 12:24:08 +0200

Ralph Myerz ft. Annie - Take A Look At The World

Throughout the years Annie has given us quite a few decent collaborations, but it still surprised us how this time around we actually preferred her Ralph Myerz featuring to her own new single. Tube Stops is a perfectly nice song, but Take A Look At The World is just a lot more catchy, and even feels more ‘Annie’ to us. And now it also got a better video.

There’s not very much to say about the music video, which sees the songstress driving through cities at night, reminding us a bit of last year’s Saint Etienne video. But, much like the Norwegian singer and her vocal themselves, it’s very pretty in its simplicity. We could watch, and listen to, Annie driving through town all night.

Catching Up: Girls Aloud - Something New We’ve been gone...

Tue, 11 Jun 2013 23:53:00 +0200

Catching Up: Girls Aloud - Something New

We will mostly catch up on artists and songs we think you may have missed the first time around, because there’s not that much of a point in reminding you of songs that were everywhere, only half a year ago. However, we must make an exception for one act.

Because Girls Aloud aren’t just any pop act. They’ve been our favourite thing in pop for many many years, and, despite always having been big pop fans, we can very well say they took our Popsession to a whole new level. They delivered the kind of ‘oh-my-god,best-song-ever!’ -songs, most (lucky) artists have one or two of, time after time after time. They had us binge import every edition of every one of their singles, only to get the singles boxset announced a few weeks later. No regrets whatsoever. They had us travel to the UK to see them live, and be the only fans spending a very cold day outside a dutch hotel to get an autograph. They had us live up to our blog name to an extent we’re not sure we ever will again. Which is a sad, but also very blessful thought. Cause noone’s gonna take those 10 years away from us.

While we were gone, Something New spent 29 weeks on our weekly song top 40, including 7 weeks at number 1. Meanwhile, Ten is still hanging on to our weekly album top 15, and has spent an insane 18 weeks at the top spot. So yeah, despite their really shitty ending, Girls Aloud are definitely worthy of every possible exception. Plus we kinda like the irony of starting our Catching Up feature with a, by now kinda old, Something New.

Next up: Another girl group, who might not have as much of a legacy, but are pretty fabulous nonetheless.

Introducing: Sharon Doorson

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 14:46:00 +0200

After spending 7 months in our logo, we reckon Nekci Menij got more than her share of ‘free promo’, so it was about time to get us a new header girl. Enter Sharon Doorson. Although she’s slowly but steadily taking over Europe, one dance smash at a time, we expect quite a few of you to have never heard of her before, so it’s time for a beginner’s class on Holland’s finest export product since the Vengaboys.

In 2004, pop fans got their first taste of Sharon when she made it into the girl group Raffish on the dutch version of Popstars: The Rivals. They weren’t quite Girls Aloud, although their debut single Plaything was catchy enough.
Like every average reality act, the band disbanded after one album, and, apart from the one girl who did surprisingly well, it seemed very likely we’d have heard the last from the Raffish gals.

In summer 2011, like her ex bandmate Nora, Sharon auditions for season 2 of The Voice Of Holland. A move that could be seen as a bit desperate for a former popstar, if it weren’t for the fact that it worked out rather well. Sharon made it to the quarter final, got herself a record deal, and late 2012 she unleashed a banging debut single…

Generic? Yes. A bit brilliant? Indeed.
In case you wondered, we’re still doing our weekly song charts, and 6 months in Fail In Love is the highest scoring song for 2013 on it thusfar. Considering we didn’t particularly care for her in her Raffish days, and Voice contestants are hardly known for releasing great floorfillers, it was a nice surprise, but what might be even more surprising is the fact we weren’t let down by its follow-up… (Just wait for that middle 8!)

Although her hair does make Rihanna comparisons both understandable and inevitable, musically Sharon’s been more like a one woman Booty Luv, and you could be doing much worse than that. Not unlike Cherise & Nadia, Sharon also did a stripped back version of her 2nd single, which works surprisingly well.

After being responsible for two of our songs of the year (we know her debut is technically 2012, but we picked up on it rather late), her 3rd single Killer is actually less of a killer song than we’ve come to expect from her, but it’s still not bad at all for a third single by a dance act.

Unlike her former colleague Eva, who, 6 singles and (about) 8 features in, still hasn’t even released as much as an EP, Sharon’s also not wasting any time with her debut album, which came out this week. We’ve yet to listen to the full thing, but going by first impressions it’s not quite the fillerfest we’d feared it would be.

So there you have it, all you need to know to get into Sharon Doorson, the girl who fails in love, but is pretty damn great at everything else she does!

Sharon on Twitter
Sharon on Facebook
SharonDoorson.com

Don't call it a comeback.

Sun, 09 Jun 2013 13:30:25 +0200

Like a certain girl band we’re very fond of, last fall, after a break that took much longer than intended, we announced a comeback.

In the months before that, we’d gone off and done our own thing, revamped ourselves for 2013.. and then came back with a new look, stronger than ever, and ready to take over planet pop once again.

But, not unlike Girls Aloud, we didn’t quite live up to our promise. Other projects and ambitions got in the way, we got tired of certain routines, and what should have been a whole new era fizzled out way too soon.

The reason we didn’t end things with a ‘thanks for your support’ tweet is we never planned for things to go this way. You don’t usually spend half a year working on a redesign only to completely give up on things a month later. Life got more demanding, I was no longer able to make this the frequently updated site I’d like it to be, and I’m not one to do things by half measures, so I intended to pick things up again when I’d have the time to get back into it with full force. Clearly, that moment never came.

So here I am, 7 months later, still ridiculously busy, still not one to do things halfway, but also still a massive pop fan, who hasn’t quite given up on his beloved pop blog yet.
I have absolutely no clue whatsoever how I’m going to juggle this and the countless other projects I got myself into, but I’m going to find a way to make it work somehow, because the occasional update is still better than no update at all.

So ‘yay’, we’re back. But don’t call it a comeback, cause they always end badly. I’m just picking things up where I left them for wáy too long.

Another week, another top two swap. We’re pretty confident...

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:42:24 +0200

Another week, another top two swap. We’re pretty confident that until someone else releases an amazing new album (or Greatest Hits collection) Pink and No Doubt will keep fighting over that number one spot, although Agnes did come rather close this week.

It’s rather exceptional for ‘old’ records to make our album chart, but with the Girls Aloud reunion being on its way, we’re sure you can understand that we played their discography quite a bit…

Big clean-up this week thanks to the Girls, but we’re sure some of these will make a return when our Aloud obsession wears out… well, if, really..

As everyone knows by now, Girls Aloud are releasing a new...

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 18:40:02 +0200

As everyone knows by now, Girls Aloud are releasing a new Greatest Hits, and disc 2 is up to a fan vote. Now it’s all good fun to vote for your favourite album tracks or ignored singles, but it would turn the final mix into some completely random mixtape of songs that already appeared on their own albums. We’re thinking instead a 10-track b-side EP would make the perfect bonus disc, and basically create a nice 7th album. Like, like, like this…

Bring It Back To The Other Side:
1. Memory Of You
2. Adrogynous Girls
3. Dog Without A Bone
4. I Don’t Really Hate You
5. Hoxton Heroes
6. She
7. It’s Your Dynamite
8. Crazy Fool
9. Nobody But You
10. Theme To St. Trinians (Not previously available on any Girls Aloud release)

Although Blow Your Cover, On A Round. Why Do It?, On My Way To Satisfaction, Hanging On The Telephone, The Crazy Life, Singapore, History or Loving Is Easy could make for nice inclusions as well.
Like the idea? Reblog, retweet, spread the word, and get voting at: http://www.girlsaloud.com/ten!.

(Click here for the full top 40) Poor Steps. This time last week...

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 21:54:38 +0200

(Click here for the full top 40)

Poor Steps. This time last week we were convinced they’d storm in straight at number one with their new single, but that was before we’d heard it and, more importantly, before we knew that by now we’d be completely obsessed with the new one from Girls Aloud.

In other top 5 news, Pink’s Try definitely benefited from its video, although we’re still not impressed that it happened in the first place we’re enjoying Stooshe’s Waterfalls a surprising lot, and the X Factor is showing its first impact on our charts.

New entries:
1. Girls Aloud - Something New
2. Steps - Light Up The World
4. Ella Henderson - Rule The World
10. Leona Lewis - Trouble
12. Taylor Swift - We Are Never Getting Back Together
24. Alexandra Stan - Lemonade
26. Kelly Clarkson - Catch My Breath
29. Geri Halliwell - Wannabe 2012
33. Nabiha - Never Played The Bass

Aside from Ella with her Take That cover Leona Lewis and Taylor Swift also benefited from their performances on this weekend’s X Factor. New singles from Kelly Clarkson and Alexandra Stan also make an entry, as does Geri’s surprisingly pleasant version of Wannabe.

There’s slowly coming an end to Pink’s domination of our song chart, although we’re sure some of these will be making a return sooner or later. As always, these songs may have left our list, but they’ll be hanging around on our iTunes for a lot longer!

We swear we’re not doing it on purpose, but this week once...

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:21:42 +0200

We swear we’re not doing it on purpose, but this week once again sees Pink and No Doubt switching places at the top of our Album Chart, which is kinda fitting since we’re really a lot into both of them, and we’d have trouble picking a favourite between the two. However, this week No Doubt got a few more plays, so back to number 1 it is!

Lower down Leona’s and Loreen’s new albums both enter our top 5, and we’ve decided to to bundle the zillion of Lana demos as an ‘album’, cause we’re playing them way too much not to be mentioned in here.

Initially we were convinced the Noisettes album would become one of our year favourites, but it kinda got lost in past month’s release mayhem, as did Mika. As for Whigfield.. the album’s pleasant enough, but I doubt by this time next year we’ll even remember it got released.

Any good Greatest Hits album offers something new, and Girls...

Mon, 15 Oct 2012 21:55:00 +0200

Any good Greatest Hits album offers something new, and Girls Aloud took that really literally with their smashing new single.
Leaders of the pack indeed, welcome back Girls.

Christmas came early this year, with the first new Steps single...

Sat, 13 Oct 2012 13:55:00 +0200

Christmas came early this year, with the first new Steps single in 11 years!

Light Up The World is out on October 22nd, followed by the same titled christmas album on the 12th of November. Aside from the new single the album will feature 9 covers of songs from Stevie Wonder, Sarah McLachlan amongst others:

Light Up The World
1. History Is Made At Night
2. Overjoyed
3. It May Be Winter Outside
4. One Less Bell To Answer
5. A House Is Not A Home
6. Light Up The World
7. When She Loved Me
8. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
9. Please Come Home For Christmas
10. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

(Click here for the full top 40) It happened with Russian...

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 00:24:33 +0200

(Click here for the full top 40)

It happened with Russian Roulette, it happened with We Found Love, and over the past two weeks it happened once again: a Rihanna lead single initially left us underwhelmed, only to properly hit us a few days later. Last week we weren’t even sure Diamonds would hang around for another week, but this week it’s shot straight to number one. Well done, Riri.

New entries:
5. Cher Lloyd ft. Becky G - Oath
9. No Doubt - Easy
16. Stooshe - Waterfalls
19. Adele - Skyfall
21. Cher Lloyd - Behind The Music
30. Rihanna - Diamonds (Liam Keegan Edit)
32. Whigfield - Stay In My Head
35. Kylie Minogue - On A Night Like This (live)
36. Dragonette - Giddy Up
38. Solange Losing You

Like every week a bunch of new album tracks enter the list, as well as new singles from Solange, Cher Lloyd, Stooshe and the inevitable Adele.

We haven’t made it a secret that we weren’t the biggest fans of the Waterfalls cover idea, and we still think Stooshe’s version is no patch on the original, but we can’t deny that we listened to it a few times, so it would be a lie to leave it off our list.

A cover that pleases us a little bit more is Cher’s version of Anjulie’s Behind The Music, even if just because it will give the underrated song another shot at some welldeserved extra exposure.

Of course all these new songs come at a price, so 14 older songs bit the dust:

We sorry, nekci.

It’s another good week for Pink as she reclaims the number...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 20:34:00 +0200

It’s another good week for Pink as she reclaims the number one spot on our Album Chart while also entering the top 3 with her, not entirely official, iTunes Live EP . This all happened even before her Try video got released, so yes, we are quite fond of her indeed.

Also entering the chart this week is forgotten ’90s star Whigfield, whose new album sounds surprisingly current and quite decent as well.

And there go the two oldest albums that were still in. No huge surprise there, but 4/5 months on we’re actually still playing them an awful lot.

At last Pink’s new video is here, and just like her last...

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:33:26 +0200

At last Pink’s new video is here, and just like her last one it’s not quite what we were expecting for the song.
But if we let go our expectations of a more wintery or Perfect kind of video, and the fact we’re a little reminded of something’s Shakira did first, it actually is quite a beautiful, and oddly moving, video.

We’re still not entirely sure why she looks like she partied with Ke$ha though.

(Click here for the full top 40) Okay, we have a confession to...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 18:44:20 +0200

(Click here for the full top 40)

Okay, we have a confession to make… we kinda cheated a little bit with this week’s Song Chart. Officially we make it every sunday, and so our new number one, which didn’t quite premiere at midnight last sunday, couldn’t possibly be here yet.
But Little Mix weren’t the only ones to be a little late this week, so since we had pretty much been blasting DNA for hours by the time we got to doing our charts, we figured we might as well include it. DNA kicks Pink of the number one spot, which seems only fair considering it was Blow Me that kept their last single, Wings, from topping our chart 3 months ago.

New entries:
1. Little Mix - DNA
5. Ke$ha - Die Young
9. Britt Love - Music Makes You Lose Control
13. Rihanna - Diamonds
14. No Doubt - One More Summer
16. Pink - Chaos & Piss
25. Nelly Furtado - Play
35. Glee Cast - Give Your Heart A Break
36. Dragonette - Untouchable
37. The Storm - Raver

Amongst this week’s new entries there’s also new singles from Ke$ha, Rihanna and the Glee cast, as well as the usual bunch of album tracks that clicked with us. A special mention goes to The Storm, some Scandanavian band we’ve only discovered this week, whose new single Raver is quite the tune.

The biggest climber this week is One Direction’s new single, which kinda took us by surprise. We still feel the song is a, slightly less catchy, copy of their debut single, but that didn’t stop it from becoming a total earworm that’s become pretty hard to resist.

Some brutal cuts again this week. If we’d ever start our own radio station the A-list would definitely have more than 40 tracks on it, and these would all still be amongst them.