Mae
Sharing their name with many British teenagers’ grandmothers is perhaps not the best start, and this lot are just as uncool (in my eyes), but in an entirely different way. They sound like Fall Out Boy, but a slight MOR version. Brink Of Disaster is like their version of Sugar We’re Going Down, but more melodic and actually quite enjoyable. Almost catchy! I don’t know if there’s much actual point in this band, especially now that FOB are really old-hat, but I suppose there must be quite a lot of people out there who would enjoy this.
Hit Potential: 45% Poptasticness: 50%
Christophe Willem
I’ve never paid much attention to the winners of France’s version of Pop Idol, ‘La nouvelle star’, but maybe that was a mistake since the 2006 winner turns out to be rather excellent! I have been practicing my French a lot recently, having made a new French friend, so it’s always useful to have some new French music to attempt to sing along to. However, my favourite song by Christophe is one he sings in English, called Kiss The Bride. It’s total electropop brilliance, and I would say it’s like a male version of Margaret Berger, but actually it sounds not much less female than she does. I can’t help thinking that the real reason he doesn’t want to kiss the bride is because he prefers the groom. If you’ve exhausted Potential Break-Up Song, try this next.
Hit Potential: 15% (in the UK, anyway) Poptasticness: 92%