I. AM. BACK.

And by "back" I mean back to posting about non-kpop stuff - I've put this post off for way too long now, and I'm not exactly happy with myself. *sigh* Well, I take this as my big return to blogging about American/British pop? This calls for some confetti, and a lot of comments, don't you think? Just saying.

*sigh* I've been gone for way too long to be able to write about everything, so I went and looked for a lot of newer stuff. I kinda missed this hunting for good music thing, since everything in kpop was just handed to me on a silver platter. All the more reason to rejoice being back then!

The fun starts after the cut, so hurry and click for crap's sake!


If you were with me pre-kpop and even a little post-kpop special, you'll remember that I used to do these short "new music" posts a few times a week or month - Well I'm bringing those back. I need to get my "skill" of scouring for good music back, and I'm hoping that these posts do it. Hopefully in a few weeks I write a few single reviews, maybe even album reviews - I hope I haven't lost my touch just yet! Ugh the stress. ANYWAY.

Alexandra's got a repackaged album, eh? Hmm. Start Without You has very rich production but I dunno, I'm not sold - THEN I find out it's RedOne. Oh well, there you go. Everything seems detached from everything else and Alex sounds bored. See, even she doesn't sound like she likes the song. Oh well.

I've been hearing a lot about Sky Ferreira from Ken, Jio and Kat, but I never bothered - was stuck in kpop world. I'm repenting now that I've heard One. She sounds very American, in the sense that everything's so clean (not Japanese clean though, that's like sterile or something) and the accent gives it away. Of course since I'm not head-over-heels for her yet, I can't help but think that something about her is contrived. Trust me, after seeing nothing but contrived and manufactured acts for the past few months, I know how to spot them - she looks to me like an American trying to be Brit/Euro. But this is just one song - I like the melody though, and I sense the autotune trend shifting once again. I'll give her some time, and maybe listen to 17 in a while.

Do I have to say something about the JLS single? *sigh* OK I will - it's crap, I didn't think Louis Walsh would do something that bad, but he actually did. Oh well. There you go, I said something. But seriously now, they put together the most horrid hook and possibly one of the cheapest videos of the year and they got what they wanted - an absolute disaster. I mean yeah the verses are a bit live-able and JLS have the vocals to carry themselves, but that hook was just sad.

Just listened to that Journey to the Regionals EP Glee put out recently, and there're two songs I have to talk about. If I remember clearly, I was one of those people who were crazy about Glee when I saw the pilot last year, but then lost interest when everyone starting gushing about it - the song that did it for me was their version of Don't Stop Believing on that pilot and now that I hear there's a new arrangement, I'm a little disappointed. I mean I love it that more of the cast get solos now and it's not just the two leads, but I didn't get goosebumps when I heard this. It's not the change of arrangement 'coz the instrumental's pretty much the same - it's the mix of the new production and the different vocals. And of course, the purpose, this new version is for regionals - lose the epic, replace it with show. The original one was epic and it was supposed to be just that, the damn song gave me goosebumps for crap's sake! Anyway. And then the Somewhere Over The Rainbow cover - what was that? I mean yeah they changed up the arrangement (a little too much though) and it's not your usual Simon Cowell-fueled performance oozing with cheese, but it's so cheesy in a completely different way.

I'm probably weeks (or maybe just days, it was a Sunday here when they crowned the winner) late in saying this, but Germany won Eurovision this year, and Britain was an epic fail, yet again! Yayyyy. Hahah. I'll get to listening to the British entry when I'm ready, but Satellite, the German one, was definitely good - sounds very European. The vocals, the specific sound of the "funk" or whatever, and the production sounds very familiar to me - oh gosh I really did miss this. OK enough emo-ing. It's one of those songs that grow on you, I'll admit that when I first heard it a few weeks ago I thought it was so-so, but I do love it now. It's like the instrumental's bare, but as a whole if you stop deconstructing everything and just listen, the entire thing sounds very tight and full.

Travis Garland was on AI a few weeks ago, and since Mel's a big fan, I had to watch. He wasn't that bad, but I'll admit that he wasn't perfect. The song is nice, it's got a pretty melody even if it's not he best song ever and he's got a rather unique timbre mixed with that range - I liked him when he was in NLT (mainly 'coz I liked the entire band), I still do now.

I feel like I have some kind of obligation or whatever to talk about Xtina, even if I don't. I listened to Bionic sometime last week and to be completely honest with you, I was bored to death for most of it - I miss the old Christina. Although, Lift Me Up, even if it doesn't really kick in until halfway through, is a gorgeous song - I like the contrast of the real drums and all these techno-ish things running around. Other than that, Bionic bored me. I'm sorry.

Lee Ryan put a ballad out a few weeks back - that's more like it. I mean I don't want him to be singing ballads for the rest of his career, but if Secret Love is what we get from the non-ballad side, then I'll have to go with ballads for now. I Am Who I Am reminds me of something Ronan Keating would have no problem doing, and I see A LOT of similarities between the two of them - I like Lee's voice better though. Everything about the song is gorgeous, and I'm like all over it now that I realize that.

I wanted to write about more songs, but that'll have to do for now. Was my "return" to non-kpop blogging decent at the very least? I hope it was.