SOL/Stat & Orchestra Live
Finally the two best sides of Sweden’s music industry have come together. Max Martin has produced an indie-pop song! As with every area of music Max turns his hand to, he brings a fresh take on it and makes it accessible for a wider audience. Unlike most of his hits Say Hello is a very light and unobtrusive song, but has Max’s trademark catchy chorus. I’ve no idea what the different parts of SOL/Stat & Orchestra Live consist of but is the lead singer and writer is Johan Stattin, a long-haired Swede who isn’t particularly attractive but makes up for it by spending his video skateboarding around Stockholm in a suit! The archipelago party at the end makes me want to be back in Sweden right now as well. There’s very little info on their collaboration online so I don’t know whether Max has worked on the whole Sol Stat album but I’ll be interested to hear it regardless.
Poptasticness: 75% Hit potential: 55%
Kristina Maria
By looking at her cheap MySpace photos you’d think Kristina Maria was your typical hopeless pop princess wannabe, but there’s something different about this one. First look at the list of songwriters she’s been working with: Kristian Lundin, Andreas Carlsson, Anders Bagge, JC Chasez and more along these lines. Then listen to her songs: totally unoriginal but brilliant pure pop music. Animal is my favourite but I love Let’s Play and FML (despite the terribly cheesy concept) too. As excited as I am to discover these hidden gems, I have to wonder why these writers aren’t pitching songs of this quality to major pop acts? I guess it’s hard to place such pure pop songs these days, but there must be a more established Disney star or Idol winner somewhere who could give them a bit more exposure than a total unknown. Maybe Kristina’s just got a reeeeally rich dad.
Poptasticness: 94% Hit potential: 10%