Kate Ryan – LoveLife (Watch)
Kate Ryan is back! Well actually I’m not sure if she ever went away, but it’s been a long time since she did anything that inspired me to write about her. To be fair, it is very difficult for anything to compare to her magnificent Eurovision entry, Je T’adore. LoveLife certainly isn’t at that level, but it’s enjoyable when judged on its own merits. However, it’s still sad how much European dance music has degenerated over the past few years. It’s quite ironic that while the Eurodance sound has been an inspiration for some of the biggest recent hits, the original source seems to have dried up. The acts we Euro-enthusiasts loved 5 years ago have somehow lost their charm and their sound has become quite diluted as they imitate music which is an imitation of what they were previously the connoisseurs of. Here‘s a depressing (although amazingly choreographed) example: Kate Ryan covering The Time (Dirty Bit) by the Black Eyed Peas.
73% Poptastic!
Babydrum – Rocket Science (Watch)
By the looks of this video, Mollie has left The Saturdays to start up a new electro-pop duo with an extremely red-haired girl who has clearly had the Marina and the Diamonds album on repeat since it was released. Babydrum are a new signing to recently restarted label Deconstruction, which is part of Sony, so this isn’t the cheapo independent label project you could easily mistake it for. A fair few experienced music industry types must have agreed to this band’s existence at some point. I feel bad to criticise a label that’s just finding its feet, but since the last band they launched were Diagram of the Heart, they need to up their game before they become known for producing sub-par electro-pop and end up ruining the great reputation the original Deconstruction label built up as the home of some of the 90s’ top dance acts. And if the outdated music isn’t enough, they also let their artists post videos of themselves on YouTube dressed as Christmas trees from the 80s! Worrying.
55% Poptastic!