When I first got into Monrose, the German girl trio were just about to launch their ‘I Am‘ album. Little did I know that all this time I had been missing out on ‘Strictly Physical‘. ‘Strictly Physical‘ was the group’s second album and contained the epic ‘Hot Summer‘ which went on to be covered by artists from Australia to Korea, it had fingerlickingly delicious electropop in the form of ‘Dangerous‘, heartbreaking ballads like ‘What You Don’t Know‘, the Olive’s ‘You’re Not Alone‘ sampling ‘Just Like That‘, the self-referencing and attitude-drenched ‘Monrose Theme‘… Basically, it was one of the greatest girl group albums the world would ever be treated to.
When late 2010 Mandy, Senna and Bahar announced they were going to part ways, it was a sad, sad day for pop fans around the globe. Now, finally, we have something to fill that Monrose shaped void in our lives. Mandy Capristo, who at just 22 has been on the pop scene for 6 years now, has just unleashed her very first solo video onto the internet. ‘The Way I Like It‘ is a slow burning electropop tune that still manages to pack a mean punch. The video contrasts an abandoned setting to Mandy’s stunning gorgeousness. Yes, perhaps I’m getting a bit hyperbolic about this, but if ‘The Way I Like It‘ is an indication of what her upcoming album ‘Grace’ is going to offer then sign me up!
‘The Way I Like It’ by Mandy Capristo is available on Spotify and iTunes.
‘Grace’ by Mandy Capristo is released April 27th 2012.
‘Strictly Physical’ by Monrose is available on Spotify and iTunes.
Eva Simons has unleashed her new single “I Don’t Like You“, which is set to follow in the successful footsteps of her Afrojack collaboration “Take Over Control“. Behind this club banger are the capable hands of Zedd, German producer Anton Zaslavski whose Lady Gaga remix was featured on the Deluxe Edition of “Born This Way”.
Eva Simons first popped onto the music scene in 2004 when she was a contestant on Popstars: The Rivals in The Netherlands. She was voted into girlgroup Raffish who went on to release one album and three singles before disbanding.
Eva started working on music of her own and then finally in 2009 she stepped into the spotlight again. First as the resident singer on Dutch Dancing With The Stars, then as a popstar in her own right.
Her debut single “Silly Boy” leaked as a rumoured Rihanna & Lady Gaga duet. By the time it became clear that Eva was behind the track, it had picked up so much steam that she was signed to EMI for an international release.
Despite recording a truckload of tracks which (as we learned from the leaks) were all kinds of awesome, the project stalled and Eva parted ways with her label.
Now, one of the most promising popstars of The Netherlands has finally returned, with a brand new deal with Interscope to her name.
If “I Don’t Like You” is anything to go by, those years of waiting won’t have been in vain!
“I Don’t Like You” by Eva Simons will be available online as of March 26th.
The HalfStyle remix of “I Don’t Like You” by Eva Simons is available on Soundcloud.
The guy behind Popsessed has been organising an Album Shuffle over on Popjustice! Everyone sends in an album and randomly gets assigned someone else’s to review. For round two I got Breaking Heart by Korean girl group T-ara. My review was just posted and because I loved the album so much I thought I’d put it on here as well.
Put on the album, enjoy and, perhaps, see you for the next round of Album Shuffle on Popjustice!
For ages I’ve been trying to get more into K-Pop, but the number of amazing acts and albums is so overwhelming that I always end up just putting 2NE1’s “I Am The Best” on repeat with their “Ugly” and Girls Generation’s “Echo” played in between every now and again. This Album Shuffle was the perfect occasion for me to finally have someone say “Now this is where you’ll start”.
I wasn’t that familiar with T-ara other than their thread in the K-Pop subforum on Popjustice having their name with a fancy symbol in the title: T♔ARA. To be perfectly honest, at first I had them confused with Monrose covering girl group f(x) somehow. Nothing that a quick visit to Wikipedia couldn’t fix though. When reading up about Breaking Heart it became clear that this was a rerelease of T-ara’s debut album, originally titled Absolute First Album.
The album starts off with the two songs that were added for the rerelease and from the get go it was clear that this would be an awesome ride. If you don’t want to live in a world where there’s only one of Britney’s Womanizer (or three if you count Crazy Possessive by Kaci Battaglia and Ruff Me Up by Brooke Hogan) then rest assured, there’s another! Opening track I Go Crazy Because Of You (Neo Ttaemune Michyeo / 너 때문에 미쳐) is essentially Womanizer’s darker counterpart. This whirlwind of a song with its delicious “Aw! AW! Aw! AW!” chorus is without a doubt one of my favourites on the album!
The first few seconds of follow-up I’m Really Hurt (Naega Neomu Apa / 내가 너무 아파) remind me of Metro Station (that’s a good thing, if you were wondering) and despite being less memorable than the previous track it still has you singing along to the chorus despite not being able to understand a word.
Track number three, the album opener for the original release, makes as much an impact as I Go Crazy Because Of You does. I put a YouTube link at the bottom of this review, but you simply have to track down a glorious HQ version if you can! One & One has the best intros I’ve heard in ages. Seriously, it’s awesome. I suck at recognising instruments so I’m just going to guess they’re synths? What makes them so amazing is that they have this sharp, steely quality to them that pierces right through your speakers and sucks you into the song even before it properly explodes. The song’s bridge is so effective that it has you at the edge of your seat for what’s next. This is one of those songs that if released by Girls Aloud would have people fawning over multiple choruses or added hook-parts and whatnot. Now, I also suck at recognising a song’s structure, but I can confirm that this one is brilliant however you choose to identify the different parts of it. When the sharp synths shoot back to the forefront for the final notes it seems like the only appropriate course of action is REPEAT REPEAT REPEAT.
Inevitably any track that would follow One & One would seem like a slight disappointment at first, but given the time the chorus of Like The First Time (Cheoeum Cheoreom / 처음처럼) sneaks up on you as well. It’s a song that really uses those typical K-Pop vocals to its advantage.
Bo Peep Bo Peep was T-ara’s big breakthrough and it’s easy to see why. After the computerised “Don’t lose your temper so quickly” intro, it bursts straight into its insanely catchiness. Although beware, if you’re not a fan of repetitive choruses (something not uncommon throughout this album) this one takes it to another level. As in other K-Pop tracks English words are scattered among the lyrics, so being able to shout “MAN TAKE A BOOTY CALL” among the gibberish you’re singing is an added bonus.
The album continues being great with the likes of Tic Tic Toc (thumping distorted disco beats) and Bye Bye (super singalongable). Apple Is A, originally from a commercial for apples, sees T-ara at their bubblegum poppiest, while Falling U is the obligatory girl group ballad.
Unfortunately the album falls a bit flat after that. The songs aren’t awful, but from what I understand tracks 11 to 16 are songs from before T-ara made it big with Bo Peep Bo Peep and you can kind of tell. Most of them sound pretty dated in a mid 00’s kind of way. Others just don’t really fit with the rest of the album, like Good Person (Joheun Saram / 좋은 사람) which they recorded for a soundtrack and actually reminds me of Dana Glover’s It Is You (I Have Loved) from the Shrek OST. Fortunately Breaking Heart ends on a high with Wanna Play? (Norabollae? / 놀아볼래?) which has a cool “Eyo, what time is it? It’s time for T…AR…A” spoken bit at the start. It doesn’t reach the heights of the first part of the album, but would make a nice theme song should T-ara ever have their own tv show.
Now don’t let this last paragraph put you off checking out Breaking Heart. Just consider the last six songs bonus tracks to an amazing 10 track album. On it T-ara have put together a collection of super catchy girl group tracks with some of the slickest production many a pop act could only dream of. The album has its unique K-Pop touches, but remains accessible enough for those of us mainly familiar with western pop. It is awesome.
Elvira Michieva is probably best known for being the German Popstars contestant that got into a fight with Senna Guemmour after the latter spoiled the launch of Bisou, Elvira’s girl trio formed of singers that didn’t make the final Monrose lineup. The Clea to Monrose’s Girls Aloud, if you will.
Bisou went on to score two minor hits with “Die Erste Träne” and “Die Sonne Geht Auf“, both from the album “Hier Und Jetzt“. After the group split up Elvira tried to represent Azerbaijan at the 2010 Eurovision Song Contest, participated in a German reality show comparable to Paris Hilton’s My New BFF and has had several songs floating about.
The definite highlight of her attempts at a pop career however remains “Blood On My Face“. Back in 2009 it was meant to be her big breakthrough under the name Elle Oui and considering how catchy it is, I wouldn’t have minded her succeeding one bit. I mean, try it. Try not to sing along to the “show you… what is… right and what’s wrong” bit!
Former Idols 2003 and Popstars 2009 finalist Dewi Pechler, who recently made a return to the Dutch top 10 with ‘Sour‘, singing an acoustic studio version of ‘Just The Way You Are’ by Bruno Mars.
Because every self respecting tv channel needs its own talent show, TMF launched Wanna Sing? in 2007.
The Flemish music channel used the same concept as it did for Rate The Video and Rate The VJ. While each contestant does their bit, viewers get to text in their comments and a score from 0 to 10. The person with the highest average score gets to progress.
The show attracted some familiar faces like Popstars and Eurosong 2008 contestant Kenza. Also taking part was Miss Belgian Beauty finalist Tamara Opdebeeck, who was already recording as Noa Neal and went on the be the runner-up in ‘K2 Zoekt K3’ in 2009.
However, there can only be one winner and for Wanna Sing? that was Simon Sinnaeve.
Simon Sinnaeve, popstar and Belgium’s first national beerpong champion.
While the song isn’t particularly spectacular, I do love this pop/rock-ish tune. It’s refreshing to have a winner’s single that sounds current enough, fits the singer well and has a lovely looking video. Three points not many Belgian talent show debuts manage to tick off!
Wanna Sing? being on a small channel may not have stopped the product from being a bit amazing, but it did mean few people got to know about Simon’s music career. ‘Your Eyes‘ unfortunately never made it out of the Bubbling Under chart.
With no plans for a second single at Universal, Simon took to MySpaceprofiles and variousYouTubeaccounts to have his voice be heard. An overview of his many projects can be found here on what I’m assuming is his personal MySpace.
We may still be waiting for news on his music, but Simon was in the papers just a couple of days ago! What for? He hosted and won the very first Belgian beerpong championship.
Move over, Jasper Erkens and Freaky Age. Here’s Breathe The Sound! Above is lead singer Simon Nuytten. Below is their song ‘Dance‘. Over here is a live cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Man In The Mirror‘. And this is the band’s MySpace profile. This isn’t usually my kind of music, but I find myself liking this quite a bit.
Back in 2003 Dewi came fourth in the first season of ‘Idols’. She went on to release ‘Left Of Center‘, one of my favourite songs to come out of a Dutch talent show. Earlier this year she returned to tv on the second season of ‘Popstars’. She was one of the Mystery Popstars, established singers who auditioned anonymously. Her identity remained hidden from the audience and judges until the liveshows. In the end Dewi narrowly missed out on a place in the final.
The singer’s not one to sit around and do nothing though. She went back to hosting her Dewi’s Jam concerts, a regular event where her musician friends come over for some great performances together.
On the most recent Jam night Dewi performed with Anna Speller and Bouchra Tjon Pong Fong as Bliss. You may remember these ladies from K-Otic, the band that came out of Starmaker. Below is the video of Dewi, Anna and Bouchra doing a lovely laid-back version of ‘Buttons’, originally by the Pussycat Dolls.
As much as I’m looking forward to new material from Dewi, I definitely wouldn’t mind hearing what these three ladies could come up with in a studio together.
