mixtape maestro (2.0)

As pop songs go, “Fight For This Love”, the debut solo single from Girls Aloud member/ X-Factor judge Cheryl Cole is definitely an earworm, matching sturdy lessons in love (summary: romantic relationships aren’t meant to be a walk in the park, they constantly require work on both partner’s parts) with a nicely subdued lite R&B-dance production buzz that’s further heightened by string melody snippets ripped straight from K Ci & JoJo’s wedding staple “All My Life” and a percussion thump focused breakdown.

But with as many replay spins we’ve given it since first hearing it a while back, there’s always been something that annoyed us about it that we couldn’t quite put our finger on. After recently coming across the long-ago leaked demo version, performed by co-songwriter Andre Merritt (Rihanna’s “Disturbia”, Chris Brown’s “Forever”), we quickly figured out what the source of our irritation was: Cheryl Cole herself.

Cole’s a decent vocalist, but her overall contribution feels almost too anonymous, especially the icy-cold tone she brings to the verses (only Rihanna really succeeds at sounding like a dead-eyed zombie these days). Merritt’s suave tenor, on the other hand, brings a certain level of warmth to “Fight” that makes it flow so much more better, from the falsetto-lined chorus to the little R&B trills he comfortably sneaks into the verses.

What do y’all think? Peep Cheryl’s official “Fight” video here then check out a slightly humorous meshing of the same video with Merritt’s vocal (dubbed “The Perfect Love”) here and tell us which one you dig more?

DL: “Fight For This Love (Demo)” (alt)

Following 2004′s Throwback, Vol. 1 and 2007′s Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA, ’90′s chart-stompers-turned-oldies-focused-man band Boyz II Men are preparing to release yet another all-covers set with their upcoming Love, and even if you haven’t really cared about a Boyz II Men record in over a decade, there might be at least one or two of the album’s proposed remakes to muster up at least a slight intrigue (come on, somebody yearns to hear their expertly harmonized, adult-soul polish on Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris”, right?).

For us, we were most curious in hearing the Boyz take on Take That’s sole US hit “Back For Good” (also known as one of the most perfect-est pop songs ever!!)…and whaddyaknow, just like that, the track would pop up on the Webs in leaked form. Guess we should point our curiosity more in the matter of “Wonder what it would feel like to have a million dollars?”. Couldn’t hurt right?

But back to the BIIM record.

Unsurprisingly, it sounds just as we kinda imagined it would, with remaining members Nathan, Shawn and Wanya (and featured Girls Aloud vocalist Nadina Coyle) committing a safe and solid reading of the decade-and-some-change boy band favorite that won’t really blow your mind to a million of pieces as much as it acts as a melisma-heavy blanket of adult contemporary comfort for the aural cavities.

A nice backdrop for one of those quiet, “ruminating about life” rainy day periods.

Love drops November 17th.

DL: “Back For Good (Take That Cover)” (alt)

Arriving just in time to coincide with the triple-degree peaking temperatures of the season, “Mercy Mercy”, the debut single from new Swedish pop quintet Le Kid, is about as perfect as perfect can get when it comes to blissful, summer-ready pop.

It’s got chirpy pin-up babe vocals demanding potential male suitors to “wind me up” and “treat me right”, effervescent “nah-nah-nahs”, a lovely brush of horns on the hook and spunky cheerleader chant interjections that spell out the band’s name…and, oh yeah, it also happens to have as a main chunk of it’s musical source, a nearly too distracting sample of Girls Aloud’s ’08 contender for perfect pop, “Can’t Speak French”, which gives it a nice dose of familiarity.

Catch the video below: