mixtape maestro (2.0)

Since catching our interest months ago with his highly addicting singles “Hurtful” and “Don’t Bring Flowers”, ginger-domed singer-songwriter Erik Hassle has become big stuff in his native Sweden, collecting not only a Top 10 album and two Top 40 singles, but the Swedish equivalent to a Best New Artist Grammy Award as well.

This year, the much-buzzed-about pop-soul-ster will finally steer his focus towards puncturing the US and UK markets with a re-packaging of his debut, now entitled Pieces; but for those not quite sold on why this guy is being touted amongst blog circles as one of music’s next breakthrough star, check the impressiveness that comes forth once Hassle’s silky blue-eyed-soul pipes are attached to pop faves both old and new:

“I Walk The Line” (Johnny Cash Cover)”

“Someday (The Strokes Cover)”

“Russian Roulette (Rihanna Cover)”

Good stuff, no?

Hassle’s Pieces drops in the UK/ USA in March. Here’s the newest music clip take (his fourth!!) for future smash “Hurtful”:

DL: “Russian Roulette (Rihanna Cover)” (alt)

Uncategorized blue-eyed soul, erik hassle, singer-songwriter, sweden

Much buzzed about Danish duo Quadron (singer Coco and musician/ producer Robin Hannibal) execute the simplistic delectation of old-school girl group pop to levels of sublime near-flawlessness on their new single “Pressure”.

From it’s perky, handclaps-horns-and-piano arrangement sending your toes into a tapping frenzy, to the doe-eyed tenderness encased in Coco’s vocal as she tries her best to get under her lover’s skin with little success, the sunny/ sad ditty twinkles with the irresistible contagiousness of a long-lost Supremes number or an early-era Mariah Carey single (you know, back before the “Obsessed”-diva grew an allergy to clothes and started hobnobbing with whatever hot rapper was around).

The band’s self-titled debut is currently available on iTunes, but will be released March 23rd everywhere else.

Uncategorized blue-eyed soul, denmark, girl group, quadron, retro

Australian chanteuse Sia has attached herself to so many different musical styles over the years (whether it’s the jazzy diva stylings of 2002’s quirky Healing Is Difficult or her many Zero 7 collaborations; the seducing, adult-pop melodrama of her Six Feet Under-featured breakout “Breathe Me”; or the more straight-forward, blue-eyed soul tinges found on her solid 2008 triumph Some People Have Real Problems) that if one was to try to absorb her entire back catalogue all at once, they might find it impossible to grasp that it all emerged from one artist.

New single “You’ve Changed” once again finds the singer shattering expectations and taking on an entirely different sonic realm: this time, mainstream-glossed disco-pop. And while it’s definitely an initially jarring new route for Sia to conquer (and will likely garner it’s share of “sell-out” balks), it’s also one she aces spectacularly, her pipes gelling perfectly with the track’s funky Studio 54 jubilance, while commanding your attention from gleeful note one as she soulfully celebrates the way her love has transformed a man who was, up-to-this point, widely known for his heartbreaking ways.

You’ve changed Sia, and moreso than your previous about-face reincarnations, this Robin S./ CeCe Peniston-reminiscent makeover absolutely feels for the better.

Sia’s fourth album, We Are Born, is scheduled for an April 2010 drop.

DL: “You’ve Changed” (alt)

Uncategorized australia, blue-eyed soul, disco, diva pop, sia, singer-songwriter

With the return of Maxwell in 2009 giving male falsetto-led slow jam R&B it’s rightful throne-holder back, it almost feels unnecessary for Alan Thicke’s son to even be around anymore offering his comparably inferior take on the form.

Still, we’ll give Robin this: his fourth album lead single/ title track “Sex Therapy” slithers and seduces in all the right places, blending yet another retread of the steady-pulsing late-night R&B groove behind Ciara’s “Promise” (producer Polow Da Don helmed both), a brief lyrical nod to Twilight, and a hook inspired by Lesley Gore’s 1963 No. 1 “It’s My Party” (“It’s your body/ We’ll go hard if you want to/ As hard as you want to…”) with far more successful (and less hilarious) results than a merging of the three might seem on paper.

For the inevitable guest rap-laden remix, Thicke even has the smarts to employ Ludacris, who, even as he edges long-in-the-tooth rapper status, still manages to come out with goofy XXX winners like “Got the banana/ Now let me split you” that the tween-aged schoolyard set can no doubt appreciate.

Sex Therapy is in stores now.

DL: “Sex Therapy (Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized blue-eyed soul, grown folks R&B, ludacris, remix, robin thicke, sex jam, sex-rap

Swedish band O’Spada must spend their entire days repeatedly studying every single piece of funk, R&B and blue-eyed soul-pop vinyl that came to be in the early-to-mid-’80’s; that’s the only way to explain away how insanely on-point their exercises in that era’s sound are.

For their new single “Ten Strikes” the five-piece don’t venture too far away from the expertly-crafted pop-funk stylings that made this past summer’s debut “Time” such an instantly addicting trip back in time, giving frontwoman Julia Spada another spectacular wah-wah and synth-accented playground for her out-sized jazzy warblings to carouse in.

Reminiscent of early Prince, with a little Rick James, Hall & Oates and Nu Shooz thrown in, the beat holds a serious “Must Drop Everything & Boogie Right Now!!!” groove, and Julia adorning it with a lyric about how happy she is her man is finally giving her the boot after she’s cheated on him eleventy-million times (she was tired of coming up with lies, it seems) only makes it that much more of a pleasantry.

O’Spada’s debut drops in February 2010.

DL: “Ten Strikes” (alt)

Bonus DL: “Ten Strikes (Nightwaves’ Sunday Morning Remix)” (alt)

Uncategorized 80's, blue-eyed soul, o'spada, sweden

To say the world needs another vintage R&B mimic would be like admitting that VH1 needs another ludicrous reality-TV dating show, but Mayer Hawthorne, the porn-ily monikered alter-ego of Michigan-born hip hop DJ Andrew “Haircut” Cohen, definitely deserves to take up space in your iPod library, if only so you could freak out your friends and parents with the endlessly wowing re-imagining of ’60’s and ’70’s-era R&B/ soul that takes place on his debut project, A Strange Arrangement.

Bearing a spot-on handling of the falsetto croon, groovy soul-bop, honey-coated soul balladry, and simplistic love letter poetics of yesteryear (all of which Hawthorne impressively played, wrote and mixed together by himself), Arrangement is so soaked in the vibe of Motown, Stax, Curtom and so many other labels of that era that on several occasions you’re nearly convinced that these songs were actually constructed and performed by the likes of Curtis Mayfield, The Temptations, Holland-Dozier-Holland or The Platters.

Standing out as one of the best offerings here is the album-closing “Green Eyed Love”. Whereas most of Arrangement settles on dishing out well-executed throwback confections without much of a nod to the present, “Love”, a goofy paean to the “sticky icky” (“My love, my green eyed love/ We’ll watch the clouds from above/ Come on, lift me up…”), takes Hawthorne’s retro-fixated template and gives it a fresh modern twist thanks to it’s stimulating electric guitar solo and it’s main groove: a slowly creeping, oom-pah funk bounce that comes across like a looser spin on one of Eminem’s cartoon-ish productions.

Below, check out the videos for singles “Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” and “Maybe So, Maybe No”, plus a live performance of “Green Eyed Love” fronted by a rendition of M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes” we’d love to hear more of:

DL: “Green Eyed Love” (alt)

Uncategorized blue-eyed soul, grown folks R&B, mayer hawthorne, michigan, motown, retro

We thought the only thing Michael McDonald bothered to do these days was record endless covers of old soul and Motown classics, but the unmistakable voice behind cherished faves “What A Fool Believes” and “I Keep Forgettin’” (and, er, this), and the man who vocally inspires at least one Top 20 contestant on American Idol each year, has definitely triggered our cheers with this one: a new B-side take on Grizzly Bear’s new Veckatimest single “While You Wait For The Others” in which he TAKES THE LEAD.

What’s most surprising here is how natural it all feels, conjuring up jumbled feelings of awe and glee when taking in the sound of McDonald’s rounded, blue-eyed soul yarl atop “Others”‘ psychedelic lurch, betwixt the chorus’ swooning male harmonies or bouncing around with that whole “want…want…want” breakdown highlight.

Our heads hadn’t yet stopped spinning after catching Jay-Z and Beyonce swaying along to GB at one of the band’s concerts, but then to get this…and learn that it’s really, really good!?! Oh how we adore your mysterious ways, Universe!!

We’ll be good (this time!!) and just give you a stream of the track below (head here for official ordering options), but as a consolation prize, snatch up two alternate versions of “What A Fool Believes”: Jim Burgess’ classic 12″ disco remix and Aretha Franklin’s saucy 1980 cover version.

Grizzly Bear featuring Michael McDonald “While You Wait For The Others”:

DL: “What A Fool Believes (12″ Jim Burgess Remix)” (alt)

DL: “What A Fool Believes (Aretha Franklin)” (alt)

Uncategorized 70's, 80's, blue-eyed soul, doobie brothers, grizzly bear, indie rock, jim burgess, michael mcdonald

While most of the blog-crit-hype that rewarded Basement Jaxx‘ comeback-of-sorts “Raindrops” was justifiable-it definitely ranked near the top of the list of the past season’s most summer-tastic entries-it still felt a little too reined-in, serving as an only quasi-reminder of the bursting-at-the-seams dance euphoria the duo reigned with on their first two masterpiece albums. Not to mention the lingering feeling that it would be mostly forgotten about by winter time.

Follow-up single “Feeling’s Gone” feels just as temporarily likable, but at least it serves the bonus treat of being the second greatest thing Sam Sparro’s Prince-spiked divo voice has ever been aligned with (for the hopeslessly confused, “Black & Gold” would chart first, of course).

One of the more straight-forward dance-pop entries to emerge from Basement Jaxx’ “mad scientist” lab, “Gone”’s dense modern disco frame carries a few moments of pizazz (the single-finger keyboard plinks, the 4/4 hand claps), but it’s main selling point lands firmly on Sparro’s electric performance, which starts off all soulful assuredness before evolving into bursts of back-of-the-throat tingling shriek histrionics.

Can’t wait to hear what remixes come of this.

Bassment Jaxx’ Scars arrives September 22nd (Pre-order here).

Uncategorized basement jaxx, blue-eyed soul, dance pop, house, sam sparro, UK

Just when you think pop music has exhausted all of it’s best tricks, that all we’ll have left is a billion regurgitations of “Boom Boom Pow” or some other ridiculous catchphrase, something comes along that smacks you across the foreheard so damn right, you once again begin to hold out hope for what the genre has to offer around the corner.

“New York”, from East London-born singer/ actress Paloma Faith, is one of those “somethings”.

Opening as a stately pop ballad slightly modernized by a subtle hip hop percussive swing, “New York” won’t instantly grab you as anything all that extraordinary. Yeah, Faith’s crisp, soul-tinged voice is nice, and the lyrics’ “cheated-on” sorrow theme bears an appreciable grown-up singer/ songwriter text (“The days were long and the night so cold/ The pages turn and the tale unfolds/ He left me for another lady”), but for nearly a minute you’re left with the ho-hum idea that Paloma is just another in a long line of less-frazzled Winehouse soundalikes (or the “new Lisa Stansfield”).

Then, assisted by a theatrical instrumental soar through the skies, that breath-halting chorus arrives: “Her name was New York, New York/ And she took his heart away from mine”, a clever switcheroo reveal (Whoa! She’s talking about a city!!) that instantly re-positions one’s perspective on everything that came before that moment (“She stood so tall and she never slept/ There was not one moment he could regret…”) and what will arrive afterward (“The newfound friends she introduced you to/ I don’t want to know them/ I just want to be with you”).

Great lyrics. Commanding vocal performance. A rousing, knot-in-throat climax aided by a gospel choir and ascending strings. Yeah, we smell a future standard with this one.

The single officially arrives September 13th; Pre-order Paloma’s debut, Do You Want The Truth or Something Beautiful, dropping Sept. 29th, here.

Uncategorized blue-eyed soul, diva pop, london, paloma faith, singer-songwriter, UK

While we won’t be as quick to jump on the increasingly tiresome (and oh-so-premature) “next Amy Winehouse” hype-tags that critics have been so eager to plant on England-born newcomer Pixie Lott, we will admit to being slightly won over by the 18-year-old’s beyond-her-age vocal talent, and judging by the chart-topping success of her catchy debut single, “Mama Do (Uh Oh Uh Oh)”, it seems we’re not alone in that position.

Yet another dose of the handclap-aided, retro-soul-tinged pop we’ve heard close to a million times in recent years by various other instantly acclaimed chanteuses, “Mama Do” adheres so closely to the overly-familiar formula without trying anything new, it’ll likely end up much-forgotten in the long run.

But, for the moment, we can’t get enough of the old-soul seasonings Lott weaves into the song’s teenybop drama, whether she’s stressing over her on-again/ off-again boyfriend or bristling with fear over how her parents might react once they find out she’s been sneaking out of the house late at night to cavort around the town with him (not to mention those breathily tossed “uh-oh”’s sprinkled all over the number that threaten to hold your brain hostage long after the song’s faded away).

If that’s not enough to justify making room for Pixie on your iPods next to the Adele’s and Amy’s though, peep the wearied diva polish she expertly slathers all over acoustic renditions of “Mama Do” and Kings of Leon’s “Use Somebody” below, then get back to us on whether you think she’s worthwhile or not.

Pixie’s debut, Turn It Up, drops in the UK in September.

DL: “Use Somebody (Kings of Leon Cover)” (alt)

Uncategorized acoustic, blue-eyed soul, cover song, kings of leon, live performance, pixie lott, retro, UK, uk pop