Two boybands from different generations.

First boyband - One Call. The reincarnation of NLT with some members of the aforementioned band, I wouldn't count on One Call hitting the big time. We've seen NLT call it quits, Varsity Fanclub push back their album release date then replace a member and haven't heard a single gigantic, possibly life-changing announcement from V Factory - new boybands in the US aren't doing very well.

If you take the facts, that's what might happen but if you ask me, someone has to do it and if neither V Factory or Varsity Fanclub are doing anything, then One Call may be a blessing in disguise.

Temporary Love sounds like hit material - the song screams 'give me a good dance routine and make a bunch of club remixes', I don't like most parts of it and over-all, it sounds like a superstar producer or someone who wants to be a superstar producer was the mastermind behind this song.

The best part is the middle 8, in my humble opinion. It's so different from the rest of the song but the melody is divine and the vocals are gorgeous. It makes an impact - even for those few seconds.

3.9/5 - I need a bit more from these guys. They need to give me a song worth hearing.

These boys need to learn a ton of things from the Gods of boybands - BSB. They've given us a bunch of amazing songs/demos of their upcoming album and they sure know how to put one together. There's a Forever-esque song, one that doesn't sound like them but is them, a heap of brilliantly made songs and the lead single which sounds like how a BSB song should sound like in 2009.

The first thing One Call and all these new boybands should learn from BSB is to actually get an album out. The second? Use a formula - it's what pop music's all about.

All In My Head is for the fangirls - me included. It's the song on the album that'll plant the idea of having the guys actually fall in love with us in our heads. A sweet melody, descriptive lyrics and a simple instrumentation. Add that to their always-top form vocals and you have the perfect boyband midtempo verging on ballad that's a MUST for all boyband albums. (see: my post on deconstructing the perfect boyband album)

One more thing - THIS ALBUM WILL BE BRILLIANT.

4.8/5

Another Friday Night post.

I'm exhausted but I don't know why - I always want to write about a ton of stuff on Friday night. Maybe I should make this an every week thing. Sounds interesting. hahah.

So first thing's first - Kristinia DeBarge. I don't know - something about the songs make me uninspired to write about the album. There are good songs, don't get me wrong, Speak Up and Somebody are the best of the good but the album as a whole sounds like various stuff we've all heard before - most of the melodies haven't moved me to the point of no return either.I'd give the album a 4/5 at the moment.

My beloved Brown Eyed Girls have released their new album(which is extremely confused but has three of the most brilliant ballads ever sung) and the lead single is so Eurotrash-y it could pass for crap. OK, maybe I'm being a little mean but seriously, the song is way too auto-tuned and techo-ized that I have a hard time imagining how the heck they're gonna sing this live.

I've noticed this with quite a number of girl groups. For some strange reason, the best singers are the ones who get the most auto-tuning, cutesy-fying and crappy-fying of all the members - that's like the worst thing you can do, make a girl who can sing sound like a baby or a crap singer. For BEG, Narsha gets like 3 short lines asa bridge and it's auto-tuned to the point where you can't even decipher if it's her - heck, she hardly even sings.

Oh, and the video is possibly going to be banned in Korea because it's VERY controversial and the girls' entertainment company refuses to edit it. Kudos to them for standing by their creation - even if it's not my taste at all.

BSB's new single has left me speechless. The fact that they can make a melody that sounds like it came straight out of the year 2000 and slap it onto a very 2008/2009 arrangement is beyond me. THIS is why they're Gods in the boyband world - enough said.

BSB's new song is fantastic.

Am taking a little break from the special and back to the UK/US scene, boy have I missed a lot!I've spent the past few days engrossed in the new special but I couldn't resist listening to the new BSB song. My time wasn't wasted though - Helpless is just as brilliant as Bigger that I'm having a hard time choosing which one I like more!

It's snappy - when I think something big is gonna come along, it does. The melody's amazing and although I don't hear a middle 8, that can be forgiven.

The song also feels like Bigger, it's like they're derivatives of one long song and yet they're different. That's what I want in an album, songs that feel the same but don't sound the same. It's possible, many people have done it but it's just that not a lot of the more popular artists have done it. The tail end of the chorus reminds me of something straight out of the late 90's - amazing how they can just slip that in. It may seem like nothing but if you listen closer the background vocals really do sound very 90's-like.

Once again, I hate the rap part. I don't see the relevance of it but I'll have to make do because like it or not, the rest of the song is probably the best thing I've heard from the US this year.

4.9/5

Looking Ahead Part 2...

So it's May - four months of 2009 are done and over with. We got a few album releases and things have been quite slow these past few weeks but hopefully everything will go back into full swing soon enough. Who knows, we might get some albums in the coming weeks!

• From what I'm getting, Mitchel Musso is set to release a debut album 'sometime in the future'. I love Speed Dial, think it sounds like a Teddy Geiger song so I'll be looking forward to this.
• The BSB albummmmmmmm! From the demos we've been getting these past few days it seems really, really, good. Not only do they have Max Martin behind the whole thing(I assume he's working on at least most of the stuff...), the songs coming out just blow off all the competition. NLT, V Factory and Varsity - you're in for a lot of competition.
• Speaking of the new boybands, when will that Varsity Fanclub album ever come out? If they keep on pushing back the release date, we're gonna get bored of them and when we finally hear it we'll be unimpressed 'coz we've heard all their 'unreleased tracks'.
• Esmee Denters has really impressed me so far and she's only got one song out. She's out there somewhere recording so if we don't get an album from her by the first quarter of next year(that's my ultimatum), it's safe to say she's gone the Gia Farrell way. Amazing voice, great song - what more can I ask for? hahah.
• Nick Lachey seems to be planning a 'comeback'. Patience was disgusting but All In My Head redeemed the whole thing for me - at least now I'll try listening to the album when it comes out. I still have mixed feelings about this whole thing, mainly because I just can't stand his crappy Patience cover. Does he really think he can fool everyone by coming out with a cover of a gigantic hit from a British boyband? NO! hahah.
• I kinda got sick of the Ashley Tisdale song - that's bad. It's kinda like Just Dance, you listen to it more than a few times and it'll spill out of your ears like there's no tomorrow. There is already a tracklisting for Guilty Pleasure however.
• The biggest surprise of this year was the new Click Five song - I love it. Now if they don't push through with this style I'm going to track Eric Dill down, threaten him to go back to the Click Five and force the band to make another album like Greetings From Imrie House. Their lame 'we want to be FOB/Panic! At the Disco' thing is not working and it never will, no matter how hard they try.
• Leighton Meester signed a record deal a few weeks back. I so wanna know what she's gonna do - I'm curios. hahah. I do love that song she did the band though(Birthday?) - brilliance.
• Savannah Outen's album is definitely on my 'greatest expectations for 2009' list - the girl is fantastic. Take that Miley Cyrus and everyone else who Disney 'discovered' to replace you!(*ahem* Demi Lovato *ahem* Selena Gomez *ahem*)
• Mandy Moore's new album is shaping up to be somewhat brilliant - I Could Break Your Heart Any Day Of The Week(phew! that was a loooooong title.) was great. Wasn't a big fan of the other full songs that leaked though. Still, the album will get a listen from me, that's for sure.
• Pixie Lott! We're getting major progress with her - Mama Do has a music video and I assume the single will be out in due time plus she's supporting The Saturdays so that has to count for something. I do hope the rest of her album is just as brilliant as everything we've heard so far - I don't want to hear a disappointing album in a few months.

So there you have it. As much as I say nothing's happening, this might be an indication that the best is indeed yet to come. If I missed anything note-worthy, tell me! hahah.

How it's REALLY done.

I wasn't that music-conscious during the boyband/girlband/pop wave of the 90's but from everything I've read and heard about and from the period, it seemed pretty amazing. I was however very into music when the current boybands started sprouting out - NLT, V Factory, Varsity Fanclub, Avenue(RIP...) and countless others. They were all trying to be R&B and hip hop but there was something missing about them - the magic that boybands used to have, no matter what the genre is.

BSB will forever be legends, there's no denying it but what makes them legends is that they come out with these brilliant songs and beat the socks off us and all these young boybands. It's current music - no more Quit Playing Games or Larger Than Life. However they do this 'current' thing extremely well and continue to make us believe that they are forever the kings of American boybands(Westlife being the kings of UK boybands of course).

Masquerade reminds me of NLT's Karma but the main difference between the two is that BSB made an over-all better song. It's catchier, the production's better and that thing that Karma lacks, something to blow you away but keep you listening - it's there.

4.8/5

The A Capella showdown

I somehow gauge how good a boyband is by looking at their a capella performances because it's very common in boybands that they're able to sing a capella in three to five parts.

So which country produces better boybands in terms of a capella work? This is UK boybands VS. US boybands!

Note: These are boybands that if inactive have produced more than two singles and at least one album. If they're active, then there's no requirement. haha.

The US Boybands..

So BSB are kind of the ultimate US boyband, along with NSYNC. As far as I know, they never recorded anything a capella apart from the tracks that they stripped the instrumental of so I got digging for some live stuff and I came across this:

They're good, but the vocals are a bit weak for me, when someone takes lead that someone has these strong vocals but the people backing him are either not blended well or have really weak voices.

Now since I got a live BSB track, that automatically bans me from judging NSYNC by their recording of O Holy Night in A Capella. Luckily, I found a live performance of it! YAY!

I think NSYNC are definitely better than BSB judging by this, there's more power to their vocals and it's more convincing for me. It sounds amazing as well, they're voices work better together than BSB, if I may say so.

Let's move over to the new boybands of the US, shall we? Mainly because I can't find any live KNOTB or 98 Degrees a capella stuff. If you guys find any though, let me know!

Now Day26 are a fairly new boyband but when I heard this performance, let's just say I'll be listening to their album a heck of a lot more than I already do.

They're gooooooood. Out of all the new boybands right now, I have to say, they're the best a capella-wise.

NLT may have the amazing, mind-blowing melodies but they're not up to par with Day26. I don't know if it's just because they're missing a fifth harmony or if their voices aren't really that strong together. Think BSB of now, that's the best description.

Now V Factory are in between Day26 and NLT in terms of vocals, they're better than NLT but they're just a wee bit not as good as Day26, I think. Amazing song though, I've never heard it before!

Varsity Fanclub however, are just that bit better than V Factory, I think. Better, more distinct and powerful voices and they most definitely blend much better than V Factory. I still love them all though!

So let's go over to my specialty, the UK boybands!

We HAVE to kick it off with Westlife, we just HAVE TO! I've said time and time again that Westlife cannot be beaten in terms of a capella o below is a very popular fan vid of a capella clips of the lads.

Now do you see why Westlife rock so much? The power and the way their voices blend is sheer brilliance people! BRILLIANCE.

A1 were around when Westlife started, and they were nominated for the same award once(The Smash Hits Best New Tour Act.., Westlife won, duh.) and I think A1 are pretty close to Westlife in terms of vocals.

It's a little too fast if you know the original recorded version but vocally they're goooooood.

Lemme just say it, Blue suck when it comes to a capella.

No soul, no power, nothing. They may have some amazing songs recorded but this was just horrible.

So at the moment, JLS are being tipped as the new Westlife, being mentored by Louis Walsh on the X Factor, plus the fact that they sang like two songs that Westlife covered. JLS are lightyears better than Blue though, if I may say so.

Amazing stuff. Still not as good as Westlife, but good enough! They're sort of between Blue and A1.

You guys DO NOT know how much I want to hear D-Side doing some serious five(or three..) part a capella! But I can't find any, so if you guys have seen ANYTHING whatsoever that resembles an a capella performance of them, TELL ME!!! haha.

So, based on the stuff I've collected(which took me about four hours..) and now shown you guys, which country produces the better boybands, the US or the UK? I know my answer..... haha.

BSB vs. Westlife - Color My World

So some background on the song itself first. It was written by Andreas Carlsson, Savan Kotecha, Harry Sommerdahl, the first two have written a lot for pop acts like Westlife and BSB(so they're kinda like gods in my book.).

According to my research(haha, it sounds funny..), Westlife were the first to release it in 2005, it was on their seventh album(the first Westlife album I ever bought!). Around the same time, I heard of a version by BSB, and I remember having it in my library but it might've disappeared somehow. ANYWAY, it was supposedly released in 2006 as a b-side or it just remained an unreleased track.

I don't know if both bands got it because they're on the same record company and Westlife are in the UK while BSB are in the US and all, but the fact that both of them have versions makes it all the more better! Let's see how each one squared off for me.

This'll be great, two of the biggest boybands, ever! haha.

The Westlife version:

I've professed my undying love for Westlife from the very start, but this just solidifies the fact that they're amazing vocalists. They don't have wimpy voices like other boybands of their time, Shane has a smooth yet somehow rough voice on this song and Mark is just well, Mark. Soulful yet smooth. Amazing!

I think this song needs some kind of maturity, some kind of rigidness in it, but it also needs what Shane and Mark have when they take lead.

The BSB version:

So the BSB version is a little too rough and/or wimpy for me. Was Nick the one doing the middle-8? It seems a little tooooo rough for me, and there's no smoothness in any of the parts. Plus the fact that some of their voices are just plain wimpy.

The conclusion:

WESTLIFE WIN!(again, haha.)