Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
Sorry might have been a big hit for Justin Bieber, but it’s had more of an effect on the lives of its co-creators. Writer Julia Michaels’ single Issues is one of the biggest US hits of 2017 so far, and now producer BloodPop is taking his moment in the spotlight, albeit shared with the Biebs himself. LA-based Michael Tucker initially released music as Blood Diamonds, starting out with remixes for artists like Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé and Ellie Goulding. He wrote and produced tracks for quirky pop stars like Grimes and Charli XCX before going mainstream in 2015 with a large involvement in Madonna’s Rebel Heart and Justin Bieber’s Purpose albums. The following year, he co-produced all tracks on Lady Gaga’s album, Joanne. Friends is his first single as BloodPop, and it’s a great sign of things to come. Usually when producers release music under their own name it’s a vanity project, a chance to prove their credibility and experiment with less commercial music than they would provide for their star muses. Not so with BloodPop – Friends is the most poptastic track he’s ever released. In fact, the fun backing track and sweet male vocals remind me most of Melodifestivalen, the song contest that provides each year’s Swedish Eurovision entry. As BloodPop shares equal credit with Justin, it’s unclear whether Friends is the beginning of an album campaign for either artist, or simply a one-off. I’d love a whole album of tracks like this, regardless of whose name it’s released under.