Aly & A.J. – Potential Break-Up Song (Watch)
I can’t help hating Aly & A.J. – I just hate their faces! While I’m sure they’re actually lovely girls, if only in the sense of being devoutly Christian, there is still something slightly evil in their smiles. However, this song is actually really catchy and fun – much better than all of their previous efforts. It’s going to take a lot more to convince me to be a fan or buy their album, but I can’t criticise this one – they’ve raised their game and it’ll be interesting to see if they can continue to.
85% Poptastic!
Simon Webbe – Ride The Storm (Watch)
What a strange, strange single! He seems to be repositioning himself as some kind of rock star, yet seeing Simon Webbe with a guitar (particularly when fancy dressing as Neo from The Matrix) can be nothing but hilarious. It’s for the Fantastic Four movie, so I guess they wanted a rock song, but why not get an actual rock singer, or at least someone who wasn’t in Blue?
43% Poptastic!
Terra Naomi – Say It’s Possible (Watch)
If Lily Allen was the ‘poster child’ of MySpace, perhaps Terra will be the equiavlent for YouTube, as she gained fame by posting live performances on the site. She is an American living in London, with classical singing training. Her look is a bit Amy Winehouse, while her music is more Alanis Morissette. It’s all a bit Radio 2 and isn’t quite strong or original enough for me to imagine it as a big hit, but I like it anyway.
68% Poptastic!
Passenger – Do What You Like (Watch)
If Kate Nash had grown up listening to Tracy Chapman, she might have ended up sounding quite like this… except for one thing: in the biggest gender shock since Daniel Bedingfield, the singer of Passenger is actually a man! I had never even considered that this could be anything but a woman until I saw the video. It’s been championed by both Radio 1 and 2 and I have to jump on the bandwagon now cos I really love this single, but I must say it has lost interest for me a bit now I know it’s a man singing, as we really do need more female fronted bands in pop/rock and definitely don’t need another male fronted one.
84% Poptastic!
Andrea Corr – Shame On You (Watch)
I wrote about Andrea’s last single here a while ago and was rather dismissive of it, so I was very surprised to find myself loving its follow-up! It’s quite dancy and extremely catchy. It could actually have been a big dance hit if they’d released it as *random dance act* featuring Andrea Corr, or just emitted her name altogether. I don’t think someone from an Irish folk-pop band is going to have much impact in Ibiza, but this would be a great summer beach hit in other circumstances.
88% Poptastic!
Arsenium – Professional Heartbreakers (Watch)
While I know that this song is absolutely terrible (his singing is awful and doesn’t even fit the music very well) I can’t stop listening to it and keep waking up in the middle of the night with it in my head. I have to admit I love it. Just like his Eurovision entry Loca (in my opinion if not anyone else’s whatsoever), it is bad in theory yet amazing in practice. I don’t think it’ll cross over to the UK, but it could be as big as Dragostea Din Tei (Arsenium, or Arsenie as he was then, was in O-Zone) in Europe, and I hope it is so I can hear it on the radio lots and join in with the silly “ba-ba-bom-bom”s.
94% Poptastic!