Talkin' fantasy right to my face

Newsbreak:

Xenomania News pointed out that several songs from Jessie Malakouti's time at Xenomania leaked recently. The best news about this fact? We finally get to hear the full studio recording of "Who's That Man." Though I'd rather have the opportunity to pay for the full quality version, with Jessie moved on to her Jessie and the Toy Boys project, it seemed unlikely we'd ever hear it, making this is something of a relief.



Magnus Carlsson has a new single coming out. It's called "The Best In Me" and is probably produced by Pitchline (based on how much he's worked with them and the fact that it's got a Pitchline remix). The cover can be viewed here, while the tracklist seems to be "The Best In Me," a solo version of "Crying At The Discotheque" (eek), "Feel You (Ruff & Jam Radio Edit)," and an extended remix by Pitchline of "The Best In Me."

On the "I'm way behind in reporting this" front, Nadine Coyle's debut single is "Insatiable," written by her and Guy Chambers. It's apparently not a ballad and bears a resemblance to the Bangles, though the latter is a comparison from the Sun so take it with a grain of salt. Fingers crossed--I really want this solo project to live up to Nadine's potential. Fellow Girls Aloud member Cheryl Cole's lead single for her second album is called "Promise This;" there's a low quality clip here, but I'll need to hear at least the chorus to know for sure what to make of it. Speaking of Girls Aloud, I don't think I've mentioned here yet that Luciana Caporaso reported she was writing songs with Sarah Harding. As I've said elsewhere, that seems like it could be a good match; Luciana's punky pop-dance work might be a good way to channel Sarah's apparent love of rock and sometimes shouty vocals (and Sarah's solo Xenomania songs aren't a million miles away from Portobella songs like "Meet Me At The Y Bar" or Kylie's Luciana-penned "Cupid Boy").

The music video for Kylie Minogue's joy-inducing "Get Outta My Way," one of the songs of the year, is out. Floor choreography! Chair choreography! Actually, the choreography is nowhere near the star of the show--that's got to go to these moments. I usually try to hold the belief that everyone has a perfect right to like and dislike what they want, but if you don't enjoy "Get Outta My Way," it's hard to believe you like music.

Margaret Berger has posted some pictures from a recent photoshoot on her Facebook page, as well as stated her new single will be out this fall (maybe as early as September, but I may have misunderstood what she was referring to). We were told earlier to expect it as a spring/summer single so there could understandably be some skepticism, but hopefully we'll have new Margaret music soon. Now, if only Bertine Zetlitz would give us a release date...

a1's new album, Waiting For Daylight, is out October 11 in Norway. That's not news. What is news--or news-ish, anyway--is that you can see a tiny picture of the cover here.

On the subject of albums going to be released in Norway, Melodi Grand Prix 2010 contestant Bjørn Johan Muri's album, Airwaves, comes out September 13. The tracklist and cover are here.

Swedish Stereo broke the new about the tracklist and cover for Ola's third album, out September 15; you can view them here. At ten tracks, four of which are already available for purchase, it's a short album, but hopefully it's got the gems he's capable of being a vehicle for.

The summery new single from British boyband JLS, "Ay Mama" (which features Shontelle), sounds kind of nice, based on a live performance of it.

Alcazar are featured on an Anders Hansson/Sharon Vaughn song on the new Same Difference album. Details at Scandipop.

I run away until I see the light

In a slight comfort to those of us counting down the days until Melodifestivalen, Norway held the first semifinal of its national selection for Eurovision, the Melodi Grand Prix, recently. Some familiar names took place, including 2008's MGP winner Maria Haukaas Storeng, Eurovision fan favorite Lene Alexander, and long ago Idol contestant Gaute Ormåsen (as well as the less well-known but still recognizable to international pop fans Elisabeth Carew of several pleasant contemporary R&B-pop songs). Songs by Maria and Keep of the Castle, a hard rock group whose entry is nowhere near as good as Wig Wam's "In My Dreams," qualified directly to the final, but it's one of entrants that only made it to the second chance round that I've had spinning around in my head.



Like Gaute, Bjørn Johan Muri took second in a season of Idol, though in the more recent year of 2007, but of more interest to me than the pedigree of the singer is that of the song. "Yes Man," a gentle singer-songwritery song, a little like a Eurovision version of Owl City or Coldplay, is co-written by Simen Eriksrud and Simone Larsen. Simone is the German-born but longtime Norway-residing lead singer of D'sound, a band with a laidback pop sound that too often approaches jazz or chill too closely for me to honestly say I adore them. Still, they've had their moments over the years, and when they steer themselves towards what I tend to think of as a "Norwegian" singer-songwriter sound, they can make lovely little songs. Take, as an example, their 2003 single "Do I Need A Reason," taken from the only album of theirs I own in full, Doublehearted.



D'sound's singles from this year may not have made an impression on the Norwegian charts, but Simone is hardly hurting for success: she's behind the melody of Donkeyboy's "Ambitions," probably the biggest hit of 2009 in her adopted home country. Likewise, Simen Eriksrud co-wrote that song and many of the others on Donkeyboy's debut album. If you've somehow missed it thus far, I beg you to listen to "Ambitions," a completely enchanting debut single, now.



"Yes Man" isn't a song that seems like a good match for the Eurovision context, nor is it as good as "Ambitions" (even if "Ambitions" has its share of less than great lines, the end result is, through one of those miracles of pop magic, lyrics that end up with a feeling of complexity and emotion, whereas those of "Yes Man" don't tug on you in quite the same way; also, the vocals here really have nothing on the Donkeyboy boys and Linnea Dale on "Ambitions") but its delicate, pretty melody and production style is one I'm far from tired of hearing. I'd say hopefully it finds commercial success in Norway, but signs are good that so far that's already occurring: it's currently topping the iTunes chart there, beating out both of the songs that qualified ahead of it.