All hail Midi, Maxi & Efti!

I’ve previously stated that some of the greatest girlbands in Swedish pop history are Ai and Popsie, but this group beats those two by miles, and therefore is the best Swedish girlband ever!

Bad Bad Boys ("hi it's me, if you know what I mean, I said it's me")
Ragga Steady ("every boy I meet in town tell me I'm the girl they want")

The story behind the group is short. Midi & Maxi Berhanu, who are twins, along with Efti Teclehaimanot gets discovered by pop genius Alexander Bard, who decides he wants to make an album with them, despite them being utterly talentless, only 16 years old and sound like they were going to fall asleep, but then again you know Alexander. He teams up with Per Adebratt (Ace Of Base, Inner Circle (he wrote 'Sweat A La La La La Long'), early Aqua) and Anders Wollbeck (the “invisible” member of Vacuum who recently became a proper member I think, recently wrote ‘Negotiate With Love’ for Rachel Stevens) and writes some of the finest choruses in pop history, gives them to the girls who adds rap verses (which by the way makes Ace Of Base look like Shakespeare) about important issues like dancing and staying positive. And the outcome is absolutely brilliant! Listen to ‘Bad Bad Boys’ once and you’ll clearly hear where a certain group called Fannypack got their inspiration from.

Their biggest hit became ‘Bad Bad Boys’ which reached #11 in Sweden, and also became a minor hit in the USA (bigger than anything other Mr. Bard has been involved in). ‘Bad Bad Boys’ was also featured in one episode of Beavis & Butthead (which you can watch here). The two follow-up singles, ‘Ragga Steady’ and ‘Masenko’ criminally failed to reach the top 20, and shortly after the group split.

If you ever go to Sweden and find their album, long forgotten in some record shelve, be sure to grab it because it's a classic. Their album is a masterpiece which has to be in all SwePop-lovers’ CD collection. Seriously.

Now let’s watch a video with them!

posted by Chrille @ 4/28/2006 2 comments

Don't mess with our man!

One of Sweden's best female singers is without a doubt, Titiyo. She is also one of the underrated ones. She's not released any music since 2004, and that's a real shame. I knew she was saying she would like to do more music in style with Come Along and Lovin' Out Of Nothing. And I guess we're all waiting for that perfect popalbum, that I know she could do without problems..

Download: Titiyo - Come Along
Download: Titiyo - Feels Like Heaven
Download: Titiyo - Lovin' Out Of Nothing

I think you all have noticed how fond we are of Popsie, here at CTOS. And why not continue? So, you've heard Joyful Life and Rough Enough..
What you most probably haven't heard is their poptastic debutsingle Latin Lover.

Download: Popsie - Latin Lover

posted by Alexander @ 4/26/2006 1 comments

Hey Mr Swedes, won't you play another popsong!

Therese - I Need Somebody (Radio Cut)
I posted the albumversion of this on Popnation Street a few days ago, and to my surprise I found the radio edit being even better. Can't believe this wasn't a hit. It's extremely catchy and fabulous!

Also listen to these..

Emilia de Poret - A Lifetime In A Moment
Excellent singer whose debutalbum is fantastic. It's probably one of the most played records in my CD-player ever.

Per Gessle - Hey Mr DJ (Won't You Play Another Lovesong)
I've never really been a fan of Per's solomaterial, this is an exception. I love it. How he can write these hits time after time is to me a mystery..

That's all for today, folks!

posted by Alexander @ 4/25/2006 3 comments

They set our hearts on fire, fire!

Elena Paparizou released her second soloalbum just a few days ago. It's a 2-disc set. The first CD has one song in English, and that's the one you'll be downloading today. It's very catchy and disco, doesn't sound Greek at all actually. The second disc includes some live tracks and other Greek tracks. An English version of the album will be recorded this summer and released in September.

Download: Elena Paparizou - You Set My Heart On Fire

I can't remember if we have posted this or not already.. I think not. Jessica entered Melodifestivalen with this song, but only managed to finish 7th (buhu!). It's a great popsong, the way Jessica used to sound and hopefully the way she will sound from now on.

Download: Jessica Folcker - When Love's Comin' Back Again

.. for you who missed the last two posts, here's another chance to download Ola and Popsie.

Download: Ola - Rain
Download: Popsie - Rough Enough (98 Remix)

Let's hope Zshare won't mess things up this time. ;-)

posted by Alexander @ 4/22/2006 2 comments

Album review: BWO - Halcyon Days

BWO are the perfect pop group. They are a credible “band” in the sense that they play their own instruments and write their own songs, the singer is one of the hottest guys in pop, they do spectacular performances with dance routines and such, they aren’t afraid to seem cheesy, gay or bizarre, and last but not least, they do brilliant euro-pop.

The whole concept “BWO” is to make easy, yet danceable and modern pop, which is easy to sing-a-long to (hence the ooh ooh’s and repetitive choruses), and that’s the main reason why they’re so big in Eastern Europe, and is why they shouldn’t try for a carrier in English-talking countries.

On “Halcyon Days” they’ve taken a step away from the synths/electric sounds that dominated their last cd “Prototype”, and taken a step into more mainstream, orchestra dominating songs. And I don’t mind that! I’m honestly enjoying this album as much as the last one, and it’s far away from being disappointing. It’s clearly divined into two “parts”, song 1-8 being 90’s influed up-tempos and ballads, while song 9-16 are 80’s sounding like on the last album. I have a feeling they will pick singles from the first eight songs, since this seem to be the new BWO-sound, but that’s a smart move by them, I think. They could always go back being more electro on a later album era, when they’ve gained a bigger audience.

'We Could Be Heroes' is an excellent ballad with an amazing melody, and if the rumours which are saying that it’s the new single are true, it’ll surely be a smash hit. 'Open Door' was one of the biggest radio hits of last year, so ballads seem to work the best in Sweden for BWO. I simply can’t wait to hear it on the radio! Personally I would’ve gone for 'Will My Arms Be Strong Enough' though, since it’s better, and has an amazing opera-intro, but I have a feeling it’ll be a single later on anyway so.

'Juggernaut' is my favourite song on the album. The only thing left do is to make a bizarre & creative music video for this, and it’s officially the best song of 2006 this far. 'Crystal Odyssey' is the heaviest electro-song BWO has done to date, reminding me of the Johan S-remixes on the last album. Despite not having the strongest of choruses, it still manages to “grab” me. 'Marrakech' is also a great electro-song with a background beat similiar to September's 'Satellites'.

Lyrically the best song is 'Haunted', which is a great space anthem with absolute nonsense like someone being his silver satellite, and coming to space paradise. But it includes the lines "look at my high-tech device - you're hypnotised" and "I got power in my rocket", which makes us think it's about something completely other than space. 'Haunted' also is the 'European Psycho' of "Halcyon Days", when not having a proper chorus. And yet again BWO proves they're such brilliant popstars they manage to make a chorus-less song sound good.

BWO - Haunted (we've gone back to yousendit temporarly since zshare kept deleting the songs, if you missed the songs from yesterday, just leave a comment and we'll work something out)

The only time they’re going wrong on this album are on ‘Hanging On The Phone’ and ‘I Keep Walking On’, in which they’re following in the steps of the weakest song on the last album, ‘Rhythm Divine’, and makes pop which sounds dated and old. They’re still both okay-sounding, though.

And don’t get me started on how brilliant ‘Obsession’ is; let’s just leave it at saying that, despite the fact that it’s a cover, it has to be a single at some point.

BUY IT FOR FUCKS SAKE!

Oh, and if this album isn’t number one in Sweden next week I’ll seriously consider giving up on the Swedish pop audience forever.

posted by Chrille @ 4/21/2006 2 comments

I do recommend you to take my hand

David Lindh – Dare (If I Fall In Love)
This was the most played video on Swedish television a couple of weeks ago, and P3 (Swedish Radio1) has played it a lot, so I’m expecting this to get high on the single chart. It’s really catchy, and the lyrics are awesome! “Lady friend, understand, I’m trying to be a gentleman. I do recommend you to take my hand”. I spent the first 20 listens of this song to figure out what song it sounds like, and walking home from school I realised it’s the da-da-da-bit in Infinite Mass feat Linda Sundblad’s ‘She’s A Freak’ it’s very similar to. But I’m willing to look past that, because it’s damn catchy and poppy, so don't get his "looks" and "image"fool you not to download it.

Mikeyla – The Lie
Mikeyla could be described as a bit darker version of Marion Raven, a bit like a one-member The Vanillas. ‘The Lie’, which is her second single, has a very powerful chorus which you won’t be able to dislike. The lyrics are, like mostly is the case in girl-rock, about bitter love. Brilliant! Mikeyla got discovered by competing in Fame Factory in the same season as Linda Bengtzing and Sandra Oxenryd.

CTOS Classic: Popsie – Rough Enough (1998)
I mentioned Popsie once last year, and they were basically too good not to mention again. ‘Rough Enough’ was their second last single, and also became their second biggest hit (after ‘Joyful Life’). It’s, like the title suggest, slightly more rough than their other songs, but still just as catchy. It also had a fierce music video which was shown a lot on the music channels.

posted by Chrille @ 4/20/2006 0 comments

Pop falling like rain!

Download: Alcazar - Don't You Want Me

Look at those four. And tell me you didn't fall for their instant hits, such as Crying At The Discoteque, This Is The World We Live In, Physical, Not A Sinner Nor A Saint or even Alcastar. Well, maybe some of you out there didn't like their glamourous look and style - but I sure as hell did. Their popmusic is needed in this world, and they will truly be missed.

Get up and dance on your funky feet!

Download: Ola - Rain

In Idol 2005 there were a lot of young people who I could see a future music-career in. Ola was one of those. He has the looks, he has the voice, he has the charm.. What else do you need? Oh, yes. Of course. Good songs! So I was pleasently surprised when I heard Ola's debut-single would be Rain, also recorded by Australian Idol-contestant Anthony Callea. It sounds like something Westlife could have recorded, so basically it's good.

Download: Marie Serneholt - I Need A House

Marie almost gave us all a heartattack with her latest poptastic single That's The Way My Heart Goes, and the new single will be even more pop (hurray!) Just listen to it and celebrate pop is back for good.

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. We're discussing on how to make this blog better. If you have any ideas or tips don't hesitate to contact us.
/Alexander & Chris

posted by Alexander @ 4/19/2006 4 comments

The world just needs to sit down..

.. for a minute and enjoy catchy tunes that don't have the intentions of changing the world. Here are four jolly poptunes you will either love or hate.

Rebekah Warren - Ping Pong Song

Elvira - Even If I Want To

Sonya - Etymon

BWO - Sunshine In The Rain (Italo Mix)

posted by Alexander @ 4/11/2006 2 comments

Don't put your heart in a box

Paris – You & I
I’m still loving the latest Paris-album, despite listening to it way too much since it was released late last year. This is the latest single release from it, and damn it’s catchy! You’ll probably see this one placed high when I update the SwePop 2006 list in a few months. Love it.

Firefox AK – Habibi / ASSID – Habibi
When I first listened to the brilliant Firefox AK album I missed out on this song, but after seeing ASSID’s (pictured right) version, which is the original one, of the same song on a music channel, I realised what an absolute masterpiece this song is! Firefox’s version is more poppy electro-cute while the ASSID-version is more The Knife/trance influed. Personally I can’t pick a favourite since they’re kinda compensating each other.

ASSID has a couple of other electro-stompers up for free on their website. I’m especially liking ‘Heavens Collide’ (wouldn’t it be great if BWO covered that song?), ‘Do It On The Floor’ and ‘Cool Cat’.

CTOS Classic: Lambretta – Blow Up My Fuses (1999)
Even though Lambretta began to work with Max Martin on their second album, I always liked their first album the most. And ‘Blow Up My Fuses’, which was their debut single, never got beaten as my all-time favourite Lambretta song. It probably even is my all-time girl rock song too! Linda, who is fronting the band, will release her debut solo album later this year, and judging from the description (electro-pop a la Gwen Stefani) it'll be genius.

posted by Chrille @ 4/09/2006 0 comments

New blog!

Since I love spreading good popmusic I have opened a new Popblog (Yeah, another one among the thousands already).

It is called Popnation Street and will feature popmusic from all over the world.
Check it out!

popnationstreet.wordpress.com

/Alexander

posted by Alexander @ 4/08/2006 0 comments

I got pretty music in my ears

Torgny Melins - Rock & Roll Highschool
Joining A*Teens and West End Girls in making cover albums of one group is Torgny Melins, whose new cd is 100% Teddybears Sthlm!

In Sweden, one of the oldest forms of pop music is “dansband”. The whole idea of dansband is simple; it’s supposed to be fun, easy-loving, instant and danceable. However, the latest 30 years, dansband has had a bit of a geek-status. That’s why it's fucking hilarious when a dansband-group make a CD with just Teddybears STHLM-songs! Yes, you heard right! Geeky old-man pop dansband versions of the biggest hits from the worlds greatest Teddybears (who by the way is my favourite hip-hop act of all time).

The lyrics has been “dansbandinized” in the sense that all swear-words has been cut out. I mean, the music is for oldies and therefore swearing is strictly forbidden! For example the line “I look so fucking good” has been changed to “I’m desperate looking good” (which by the way is a bit ironic since the band might even be uglier than the Rolling Stones). When you listen to it, try to see it in a comedian way, and not directly think they’ve murdered the song.

Bonus: Dansbander – it’s ‘Hiphopper’/’Punkrocker’ - brilliantly renamed ‘Dansbander’. They made a music video for this one, which I’ve seen a couple of times on Sweden’s biggest music channel ZTV, and they normally never show dansband-videos, so a great achievement by the Torgny's there.

Bonus 2: Yours To Keep – really quite beautiful, actually. The fact that Teddybears Sthlm never made a ballad-version of this song is weird, since the result is splendid.

posted by Chrille @ 4/08/2006 0 comments