FEATURED SONG: Neon Hitch – “Bad Dog”
Neon Hitch
I really wanted to hate this song when I saw that the New York Post dubbed Neon Hitch as an A-List female pop queen and that Idolator called her a sexy singer songwriter despite the fact that her hit is produced by the same guy who produces Ke$ha, Britney Spears and Katy Perry. It’s clear the hype machine wants to make sure Neon Hitch is the 2011 answer to Lady Gaga now that Gaga has played out her crazy-as-batshit stage reputation for all its worth, leaving nothing but her new music behind (and look how disappointing that was, my friends).
The problem is, as much issue as I take with this kind of electro-pop music being considered “singer-songwriter” in any sense of the phrase, this is definitely an addictive piece of dance pop, and it’s all but certain to tear up the charts, since it plays to everything top 40 radio adores these days. I”m not sold on the idea that Neon Hitch has anything else up her sleeve but this one potential Britney-aping confection. And the “bad dog, let me punish you” fetishism of the lyrics becomes cloying the more you hear it. But the song’s catchy as hell and once you do hear it you won’t get it out of your head, which is why in a few months you won’t be able to escape singing along with the chorus.
I wanted to hate this song like a vengeance, and by the end of 2011 I probably will. Which is why I’m glad I at least got to hear it before top 40 radio makes it impossible not to despise it. I do hope, however, that there’s something more to Neon Hitch than a great backstory and this one pop track that is here today, gone tomorrow. We’ll find out when she drops her debut album Beg, Borrow and Steal later this year.
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ALBUM REVIEW: Sunday Lane – “Bring Me Sunshine EP”
Year of the Album — #042
Sunday Lane – “Bring Me Sunshine EP” (2010, Independent)
“You can be careful and I’ll be the reckless one,” Sunday Lane sings on “Reckless One,” the closing number on her independently released debut EP Bring Me Sunshine. “I’ll get my heart broke, but someday I’ll find love.” Her vocals, sounding hard and brittle, of broken hearts and love lost, belie the forceful façade she portrays on the outside. It’s a raw, beautiful way to wrap up her recorded introduction to the world.
This EP showcases Lane’s Colbie Caillat meets Ingrid Michaelson sound in a solid way; these are pop songs at their core which shimmer because she smartly imbues the individual songs with flashes of her own individual personality. Her voice has a frequent tremble, a sense of vulnerability which accents these songs of hope, love and the intangible elements of love which we’ve all experienced. “I’ve forgotten how long it takes to make a bad thing good,” she sings on “How Long It Takes.” But I can assure you it won’t take long for this album to dig its way into your head.
This is piano driven pop which manages to rise above the fray, and she’s earned her fans on the road, building a career from the ground up, the way few do anymore in the world of pop music. If the quality of the songs on this EP are a sign of what she’s capable of producing, here’s hoping Sunday Lane gets to make a full album that showcases her songwriting talents to a wider audience.
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Her cover-mashup of “Baby” by Justin Bieber and “Bad Romance” by Lady Gaga is below. I think you’ll agree her voice raises those two songs to a new level, showcasing just how much she can do with just a few twists of a note:
ALBUM REVIEW: Roxette – “Charm School”
Year of the Album — #035
Roxette – “Charm School” (2011, EMI Records)
Move over, Lady Gaga! Her “Little Monsters” may have just swallowed down 1.1 million copies of Born This Way in its first week, but the real deal when it comes to Euro-inspired pop in 2011 comes from … Roxette? Damn straight! With Charm School, the band’s eighth full-length studio album, the writers of “The Look,” “Listen To Your Heart” and “It Must Have Been Love” rocket back onto the scene after a ten year absense, proving that when you’ve got the songwriting chops to craft great pop hooks, that talent never dies. It just hibernates. And when that rumbling bear wakes up, you better get out of the way, because these hooks have claws!
The album’s already spawned two hit singles in Europe, including “She’s Got Nothing On (But The Radio),” which goes balls to the wall with Europop synth bliss, making it sound like the perfect hit from 1994 that, somehow, simply sat in a vault all these years only to emerge to save 21st century pop radio. But “No One Makes It On Her Own,” an album track, may be one of the band’s strongest ballads, and the deeper you dig into this effort the more you’ve got to wonder: where have these guys been all these years? The music proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle still have great music left to create.
Unfortunately the band has yet to put together any meaningful form of distribution in the US, so the best way to get this album is either as an import or via bittorrent. It’s a shame to have little choice but to steal the music, but if enough of us spread the word and show that America has an appetite for some “throwback nineties” Europop, maybe we’ll be given a legitimate American release. Until then, time to spread the word that Sweeden’s strongest pop export since ABBA has crafted one of the best pop albums of 2011 that most ofAmerica may never get to hear. And that’s just plain shameful.
