Snap, Crackle (fizzy) Pop: Week ending May 30th 2010 (Maroon 5, James Leon, Amy Meredith, Magnus Carlsson, Adam Tyler)

Amaze of the balls! This gosh forsaken heck hole of a week is finally over :) Woo, and I don't think it's unseemly of me to add a hoo. It's not been the most delightful of weeks, though clearly the Eric Saade album has helped me through and some bostin' steve ausin 'season finales' have perked things up somewhat! But tomorrow, I shall tra la la off to my cottage in the country for a week of bumpkiness (that's not a sex thing you pervs), relaxation and writing. As it goes, I went through loads of old blog posts the other day - what I do like about my blog (he said modestly) is that I always work a bit of my life and personality and mood into each post, whatever I'm writing about. So i've found loads of little stories and pithy put downs I had forgotten and it really made me laugh. I know it's poor form to laugh at your own words, but i was genuinely quite amused and it gave me a little boost. I'm never particularly good at blowing my own trumpet (i've tried, too many ribs) and i've never been one of those people who can praise how amazing they think they are, but i did think, oh you know what Paul? You aren't bad at writing :) And so much of what i found will flesh out parts of the novel... and form basis for future work. So yay, quite pleased by that and I'm heading down to holiday with pages and pages of print outs of this very blog with a pencil case full of highlighters. how industrious... :) Still to keep you going - here are some things that are very much worth looking forward to...

GOOD STUFF:

• Maroon 5 ~ Misery: SQUEEEEAAAL! As I blogged a little while back, Adam LeFine and his boys are back late this summer with their third album full of rollicking tunes and tender love makey ballads (no doubt). You can hear some clips of their sound over at Rolling Stone, and they've already started filming the first video which promises to rival Wake Up Call for sex and violence. It goes to radio late June and I shall have my ear glued to the stero waiting for it "drop". Excitement!
• Magnus Carlsson ~ Feel You: After the rather camp but ultimately engaging cover of A Little Respect, Magnus returns with another song from his forthcoming album. And it's equally camptastic and discobonkers. It's all pulsing dance beat with a soaring club driven melody (that sounds like it would be rather lovely as an acoustic version, as Swedish boys are want to do) and snuggles in perfectly to the always joyous Magnus canon. Think the dance version of Waiting For A Star To Fall and you ain't far off. B-side Take Me To Your Heart is like a late 80s S/A/W song remixed now by Pete Hammond, ie - very palatable indeed...
• James Leon ~ Caught Up In Your Vanity: This is just sublimely exquisite. It's like a long lost Human League demo, dragged out from the archives and given a generous coating of millenial magic. Gently synth driven, it crescendos into a fuzzed up electro chorus and James sounds absolutely brilliant on it. Nice statement on the plasticness of the London scene too(or anywhere/one vain). So good you can't just listen to it once. This needs to be released - and now...
• Amy Meredith ~ Lying: Oh how am I in love with this band, that I assumed was a solo pop singer before I heard any music. They are not. They are a band. With a rather dishy as a dishcloth hunk of a suave lead singer. And a song that is basically a man version of Stefy - Chelsea or Vincent Black Shadow - Metro; i.e. instantly catchy, brilliant pogo-pop quick as you like lyrics and an amazeballs chorus. It's all so very wonderful indeed and I can't wait to hear more from them. Luckily an album is out in July. Bonza! I feel a whole new obsession coming on...
• Chanee & N'Evergreen ~ The Album: Quick review - it's Roxette for the year 2010. In fact it's seven Sleeping Singles and seven Must've Been Loves. Belated popjustice song of the day In A Moment Like This is still by far the highlight, but there are some pleasant 80s power pop on there too. Charming. Cheesily charming, but charming.

Top 21 songs of the week:

Above, where you see a picture of pop star of the future Adam Tyler, there should be a probably brilliant new video to his ace debut single. Friction. There isn't. Instead there is what might be a still from that very video. That's because the video sadly isn't out yet. But it will be very shortly - probably when i'm deepest darkest rural East Sussex, working on a slow dongle! So i'm assuming it will have some killer dance moves and look very brilliant indeed. Follow Adam on twitter because he'll sure as heck let you know when the video is done - and be sure to let me know how immensicles it is in the comments!! EDIT: Now with added commentary from Adam himself :) See comments!!

21 ~ Simon Curtis, Super Psycho Love
20 ~ Mika, Kick Ass
19 ~ Kimberley Locke, Strobelight
18 ~ DeeDee, Endure
17 ~ Sophie Ellis Bextor, Bittersweet
16 ~ Gabriella Cilmi, On A Mission
15 ~ Kelly Rowland, Commander (NE)
14 ~ Gabriella Cilmi, Hearts Don't Lie
13 ~ Eric Saade, Manboy
12 ~ Donkeyboy, Sometimes
11 ~ JLS, The Club Is Alive
10 ~ Maria Mena, All This Time
09 ~ Sergey Lazarev, Alarm
08 ~ Adam Tyler, Friction
07 ~ Gravitonas, Kites
06 ~ Lovestoned, Thursdays
05 ~ Josh Dubovie, That Sounds Good To Me
04 ~ Chenee & N'Evergreen, In A Moment Like This
03 ~ Eric Saade, It's Gonna Rain
02 ~ Scissor Sisters, Fire With Fire
01 ~ Kylie, All The Lovers (3 weeks)

Coming soon (maybe next week): All you need to know about one of the summer's essential pop albums; some excellent Swedish pop; The Sparkling Arrest; Disco Lemonade - the novel AND the pop song?