The FizzyPop Chronicles 2009: Volume Six

UNIMPORTANT EDIT 4TH JUNE: BIG BRO UK 10 LAUNCH NIGHT OVERVIEW IN COMMENTS :)

Well, i'm not particularly good at sticking to this weekly posting malarky - though I am finally getting on with some stuff I should be getting on with "off net", so it is working out somewhat :) Anyway, I won't bore you with a long spiel, just enjoy one of my holiday photos above (one of many) and I'll get on with this months selection of top tracks I'm sending to my friends :)

MUST HAVE TRACKS FOR JUNE:

01 - Dan Black, Symphonies: True story ~ of all the acts I listed in my Jan tips for the year, I'm still probably only avidly following the top five (though I dip in and out of the other 5's gorgeous songs fairly regularly). Dan's Alone was spunky-jerky dance pop of very good proportions, but this? I know it samples Umbrella, but it's practically an active doll - loaded with new personality and Dan sounds just lovely on. Great lyrics too. I think I've found my perfect summer single :)
02 - Dragonette, Fixin' To Thrill: Surely you must have all heard this by now? It was free to download and featured heavily on Popjustice - but then again so did Luigi Masi this week in a true jump the shark moment, so maybe you missed it? No surely not, because within seconds in the usual blogosphere rush to be first to post it was blooming everywhere. It's decent, but not entirely amazing. Still a fun song that mixes Scissters, a more punky No Doubt and some Blondie elements.
03 - Jordin Sparks, Battlefield: The song that caused twitter to go into meltdown over how brilliant it is. And it is. Whether you chose this or the ryan tedder version (because it sounds so much dirtier when ryan sings "both hands tied behind my back for nothing"! Oh ryan, not for nothing...:P), there is no denying that it's a great pop song that soars as soon as it hits the first chorus. Oh, and the "better go and get your armour, bananarama" bit is just deliriously lovely.
04 - JLS, Beat Again: Well, as I always knew, the real deserving winners of last year's X Factor, clean up good. Marvin is even more of a tall drink of water that I remembered and the tune is an insiduous r'n'b meets gentle electro jam that grows on you with each listen. Loving the bow tie/sleeveless sweater look :) And the hilarious bad quality upload of the video! This absolutely must be a hit. The most deserving credible pop stars to hit from the X Factor since Shayne Ward!
05 - BWO, Right Here Right Now: Firstly it's probably the most lovely of videos for quite the longest time (though it took me a little while to reach that opinion). Secondly, the general opinion is that this is one of the finest tracks from the latest album (it's darn tooting, but it's not the best). And finally and most important, it's a very decent song indeed with a glorious swirling chorus ("give me love right here right now" section makes my veins itch with glee). They are global superstars if only in my mind.
06 - Pet Shop Boys, Did You See Me Coming: I toyed whether I wanted to stick to the official second single for this mixtape, or substitute it with All Around The World. I'm sticking with the official as you can see - it's just so delightfully summery and a perfect early evening song as the sun remains high in the sky and the smells of barbecues waft up to my balcony window. Plus it's also the perfect walking home song to gaze appreciatively at the work boys coming out the offices all dishevelled in shirts and loosened ties :)
07 - Alcazar, From Brazil With Love: I did indeed love Burning when Disco Defenders first came out, but it's grown ever so slightly tiresome now so I've gone with this kitsch gem. The verses are all cleverly twee lyrics and the chorus soars into this glorious slice of samba meets disco. It takes on a slightly strange and sad meaning as my friend pointed out in light of the disappearance of the french plane that disappeared :( Lost doesn't look so far fetched now... But on a more cheerful note, if The Saturdays covered this it would be very massive indeed.
08 - Mans Zelmerlow, Home: Again, I could have chosen the official single (Hold On - seems more autumnal to me) or the groovesome Forever (end of summer pick me up for sure) but as summer "launches", I'm feeling this homage to Black and Gold with it's sleek beats and sing a long chorus. Great tune indeed. Bonus - the fan made vid in the link has lots of lovely pics of the adorable perfect man (active doll) that is Mans :) Hurrah.
09 - Star Pilots, The One and Only: Any one who can get away with covering a Chesney Hawkes song so perfectly while giving it a decent dance makeover had me at hello. These boys went down a storm at gay pride in Birmingham last week and while the crowds went wild for the current single, this took the roof off. People were hugging each other with excitement (though that might have been too much to drink and the sun). This could be epic. True fact - while they and the dolly rockers got one of the biggest receptions of the day, no one topped the sheer adulation Hazell Dean received when she sang the glorious Searchin! Who knew?!
10 - The Saturdays, Work: I wrote about this on Sunday, and Aaron has a jolly good write up over at the one year old this week (and happy birthday Aaron!) Fabtastic :) So i won't blather on about it other than to say, it's still quite edible and while I prefer the colourful cheesiness of Up, this puts the Satz on a new level of pop perfection. Hurrah for D;Luv for convincing me they were amazing back in August last year :) (And forever silently editing my typos!)
11 - Kevin Borg, Street Lights: There is something about this song that works when it probably should come off as mundane. It's probably the symphonic strings in the song mixed with Kevin's impassioned vocals and a chorus that soars like an eagle. Yes, the song is a little old now but again the summery weather has made me fall in love with it all over again. Plus Kevin looks a proper popstar at 2m53 in the video.
12 - William Young, I Won't Give Up: And i won't give up on William's near perfect fourth album Let It Go - at least not yet. This is a prime perfection of how Britain can sometimes ignore sheer class in pop songs and instead spend needless amounts of money promoting the childhood obesity of Stavros Flatley. Sheesh. Just lie back and the gloriousity of this track wash all over you and imagine a world where it's top ten. There - isn't that a better place?
13 - Pink, Funhouse: Let's just skip the Bad Influence and be taken straight to the funhouse. It's actually quite a dark song disguised as a quirky little pop single and one that has hidden depths in it's countdown laden choruses. Perfectly catches the spirit of how you feel when something good ends and all you are left with great big empty memories. Oh great, now I'm depressed :(
14 - Lenka, Don't Let Me Fall: It seems very wrong indeed that Lenka isn't a massive star in the UK by now. She's quite the wordsmith and her excellent debut album still continues to captivate me almost a year after I first heard it. This is a lovely laxidaisical gem of a tune that really deserves a much wider audience. Time to start a UK Lileth Fair maybe?!
15 - The Days, Never Give Up: Making tracksuits seem sexy again is quite a hard task, but in the video to this tune The Days boys just about manage to pull it off. It's not quite as instant as the euphoric pop-rock of No Ties, but it's a more mature sounding tune that gives the listener an insight into another side of the boys. Who all seem quite quite charming.
16 - Julian Velard, Feels Like Love Again For The First Time: How I adore Julian. He even tweets when his washing machine is broken. How "pop stars are just like you and me" is that? I've really written about this tune a ridiculous amount of times already, but I will add that it is an absolutely mega piano driven romp with a joyous melody and a chorus as big as all outdoors.
17 - The Yeah You's, 15 Minutes: They are increasingly becoming my boombastic say me fantastic touch me in my back she says I'm mr ro-ro-ro-mantic pop band of choice. Their radio 2 show last week convinced me that yes indeedy, I'm forgiving of the apostrophe and embracing the genius of their cleverly crafted pop magic. I suspect that actually their debut album may be very pleasing indeed. Fingers crossed.
18 - Mika, Toy Boy: Despite the low key nature of the release and the lack of love the tracks have received, I've enjoyed the EP. Toy Boy remains my highlight, and as Mika has said himself, he wanted to release some tunes that would be perfect to perform in an acoustic setting. This is Disney meets Donnie Darko music and is probably more Billy Brown than the more discotastic songs Mika became more famous for after. It seems like those are being held back for the second album proper. Phew, etc.
19 - Indigo Girls, What Are You Like?: Lovely. That's what most of the music produced by the Indigo Girls is. This doesn't deviate too much from their perfected formula of delivering top notch acoustic pop tunes with clever socially insightful lyrics married to their knack of popping out an addictive chorus and melody. Perfect summer singalong music that also makes me yearn for the return of the Magic Numbers. Sigh. Remember them. Both albums of theirs were fine...
20 - Regina Spektor, Laughing With: As I've said before, I ignored poor Reg until she won me over with her track from the Ben-RAR-Barnes starring Prince Caspian that managed to pull off the tricky task of sounding completely amazing within the context of the movie as well as adorable on the radio. This is more coffee house poetry and although not my favourite song of hers, this is proper bonza. And you really won't hear her music described like that anywhere else, will you?!
21 - Dave Matthews Band, Funny The Way It Is: God, I went right off them when all they seemed to do was release live music and release shit from coaches into canals. But back in the mid to late 90s I was quite enamoured with their singles (more than the albums) and spent many a happy moment singing along to Crash Into Me and So Much To Say. This is actually not a bad return to form, and grows on me each time I listen to it. God i'm so diverse this month. (*pats self on shoulder!)
22 - Jason Mraz, Try Try Try: I effing adore Jason Mraz. I'm sort of half sad that people mainly know him in this country for I'm Yours when there are so many different facets to his music. There is coffee house manteuse Jason of his first album, the pop star in the making of Wordplay and Geek In The Pink and then there is the Jason that seems to embrace life and all that is marvelous about it - the Pushing Daisies Jason as I call him. Songs like Life Is Wonderful and Live High have given me a new perspective on life and this really isn't too removed from that philosophy. Which i find very charming indeed. Plus he's still an alternative stone cold fox :)

Bonus Dance CD for people like me who don't really do remixes but need something to work out to in the mornings: Sophie Ellis Bextor - Heartbreak Makes Me A Dancer (Club Mix) / Diana Ross & The Supremes - Love Child (2009 Almighty Mix) / Hazell Dean - Searchin' (2008 Almighty Mix) / Dan Black - Symphonies (Passion Pit Remix) / Marina and The Diamonds - I Am Not A Robot (Starsmith's 24 Carat Remix) / David Guetta & Kelly Rowland - When Love Takes Over

Anniversary: Who knew? It's been 3 years exactly since I started writing about Simon Curtis and his deliciously more-ish Alter Boy album. Still sounds brilliant for me 3 years on, and different tracks are favourites at different times. Today? Religion Reduced. Just an epic frenetic track about the fad religions that seem to take over the world...

If you check out one blog today (other than mine): make sure it's Ademwithane - in particular his quite scintillating guide to all 21 Girls Aloud videos (i'm assuming the St Trinians clip doesn't count). It's a guide i didn't know i needed until i read it :)

Back sunday with the weekly round up and news of something quite industrial... ;) And follow my live tweeting of the Big Bro 10 UK Launch tomorrow (Thurs 4th June)