Tuesday, January 31, 2006

I made him pregnant

Arash feat. Helena – Arash
Is it becoming a trend to have a self-titled song!? First West End Girls, and now the new Arash-single is simply called ‘Arash’. It’s a nice ballad which have grown to be my second favourite single from Arash this far. The video for it is extremely cheesy, having Arash being a “pimp” in a house full of girls, and then in the end he does an “emotional” Bollywood-ish goodbye with a girl which cracks me up every time I see it on TV. Very funny. You can click here to watch the video. Now, to sum up, if you’re a fan of Eastern European pop music you’ll love this, if you're not you’ll still like it ;).

Bonus: Temptation – This is an early version of Arash’s biggest hit to date, which, with exception from a bit in the end, only features Rebecca on vocals. It also features some cool motor-sounds in the background that didn’t make it to the final version of the song. The actual single version of the song is much inferior to this version!

Frida Hyvönen – The Modern
Every time I hear something innovative in music I get a special feeling inside of me. Especially when it belongs to a the genre which I’m normally not very ‘into’. Using only a piano Frida succeeds to take the singer/songwriter genre to a whole new level. Actually she sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before. And the lyrics are pure brilliance. As I understood it, it’s about Frida who makes her boyfriend pregnant, and then he gives birth to a word which represents love and the modern. How brilliant! If you like this one you should definitely buy her album, most songs are at the same standard as this one.

CTOS Classic: Teddybears Sthlm – Yours To Keep (2000)
I’ve been to a couple of their concerts and I own all their albums, so you can certainly consider me a big Teddybears Sthlm-fan. With electric sounds and fun lyrics they manage to make hip-hop sound great (which is a great achievement alright). They’ve always had a rather mixed sound, changing a lot from song to song, and when they collaborated with Paula Åhlund, who at the time was the girlfriend of one Åhlund of the band (there are a few), they went electro-pop! The song could be described as a mixture between Annie and September, electro-disco with other words. And it’s energetic in a way that t.A.T.u. were in the beginning of their carrier. Obviously the Teddybears were like 4 years ahead of their time when they released this, so unbelievably it only reached #48 in the single chart, which might be one of the biggest pop crimes in Swedish history!

posted by Chrille @ 1/31/2006 2 comments

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Living on air is easy

Barbados – Summer In My Heart
If you didn’t know already, Magnus Carlsson’s (from Alcazar) old band Barbados is still going strong! And guess what? They’re still 100% poptasticness! ‘Summer In My Heart’ is their latest single, and it’s so ecstatic your head might explode. Really - it’s your new anthem through the cold and boring winter, you can’t help but smile while listening to it! I also think this could be a worldwide summer-jam if it was covered by some dance-act.

Lutricia McNeal – It’s Not Easy
I know Lutricia isn’t really Swedish, but since she’s lived in Stockholm for a few years and I think she’s a Swedish citizen, I’m gonna feature her here. And the fact that ‘It’s Not Easy’ hasn’t charted anywhere else but in Sweden that’s reason enough to post it. It peaked at #3 which is her highest peak since ‘Ain’t That Just The Way’, and I think that was well deserved since it’s a very beautiful ballad.

CTOS Classic: The Sounds – Living In America (2002)
When I a few months ago tried to put together a list of my favourite Swedish singles since the year 2000 this song made it to number 9. It may be a rock song, but is still very very good. I’d call them a mixture of Blondie and The Killers, with an electro-rock production and the singer’s quite shrill voice. And as for the lyrics, well, you could choose to see them from a euro-poppers perspective, and be happy not to live in a country full of rap and Nickelback. Or something. At least it’s not a diss on the States since The Sounds have toured there a lot, and released this particular song as a single.

They have a new single out here at the moment called ‘Song With A Mission’ which isn’t near the brilliance as this, but hopefully the new album called “Dying To Say This To You” will include some crackers as the last one did.

posted by Chrille @ 1/28/2006 0 comments

Thursday, January 26, 2006

The Knife – Silent Shout (album review)

The new The Knife-album has leaked and I’m absolutely in love with it. They’ve basically taken the best from the first cd, and the most original from “Deep Cuts” and taken them into a new, dark direction. And I must say I really like that direction.

As I might’ve mentioned before, “Deep Cuts” is one of my favourite albums ever, so my expectations for this album were very high. And even though “Silent Shout” didn’t top “Deep Cuts” (I didn’t quite think it would either – that’s like mission impossible), I still probably will consider this one of the best albums of 2005 at the end of the year.

The album, even though it includes vocals on all tracks, has big electro-parts of the songs which show that they’ve taken a step away from the pop music into electronica. Even though I’m normally not a fan of electronica, I still like this because they’ve done something innovative out of it. What I’m trying to say is that it sounds nothing like other electronica does.

I also think they’ve become a bit j-pop, which is very interesting! Karin’s voice has also been a bit “Japanese” but on this album they’ve also taken the production to that direction too, at parts of the album. That’s a brilliant step as I love j-pop.

My favourite song on the album has to be ‘Marble House’, which also features the androgyny electro-god Jay-Jay Johansson on vocals. The melody is very infectious, and along with the philosophic lyrics and inventive production it has great chances of becoming the new ‘Heartbeats’.

The Knife feat. Jay-Jay Johansson – Marble House

Other favourites on the album are the energetic ‘Like A Pen’ and the nightmare-before-christmas-ish ‘One Hit’ which features some scary “ho ho ho’s”. Lyric-wise the best song probably is ‘Forest Families’ which you just need to hear for yourself to understand, it’s brilliant.

If you’re a “mainstream” pop listener you’ll probably not like this album, but if you want to hear something new and innovative, this album is something for you.

Oh, and don’t let the first single ‘Silent Shout’ fool you! I consider it to be one of the weakest tracks on the album, and it doesn’t sound anything like the other tracks either.

posted by Chrille @ 1/26/2006 4 comments

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Male electro-duos pt.1

This is a new feature on CTOS. I will present to you all the amazing male electro-duos Sweden has, because 1) I’ve already featured all girl-duos like West End Girls & Cat5, and 2) they are literally dominating the underground pop scene here. A fair warning to you all out there though; hold onto your hats - you might find your new favourite group here!

First up is Le Sport - my second favourite of the duos. They began releasing music early last year under the name Eurosport, but because the tv-channel with the same name weren’t too happy about them sharing the name they changed it to Le Sport. Since then they’ve released around ten songs digitally and on EP’s.

I admire them because they’re proud of being pure euro-pop, and are not trying to be “indie cool” and such even if they are on an independent label. In interviews they keep coming back to how much they love euro-pop, and they once said that the Aqua-albums are masterpieces. You can’t go wrong with a group who thinks that now, can you?

Le Sport also has a quite funny gimmick, which basically is to seem gay. Lot’s of their lyrics are about wanting to have sex with men and such. For example they have a song called ‘Show Me Your Penis’. Both of the members claim that they’re fully straight though.

Tell No One About Tonight – The “hit”. The video has been shown quite a lot on Swedish music channel ZTV, and has gotten some airplay on P3 (Sweden’s Radio 1). It reminds me of early Depeche Mode, with the catchy synth-sounds in the background. It also was #8 in my “unpublished” top singles of 2005-list.

Your Brother Is My Only Hope – My favourite song of theirs. The lyrics are a bit blurry, but I think it’s about being in love with someone brother. It’s one of these songs that might not be that instant, but once you actually do get into it you’ll love it! The chorus is so catchy it gives me shivers.

Eurosport Music Baby – This is a fine example of their “homo-erotic” lyrics. Once you hear it it’ll speak for itself. It keeps cracking me up every time I to it – “I know how it feels making love to a woman, and now I want to feel the touch of a man” – brilliant!

As I mentioned before they’ve only released EP’s and mp3’s to date, but an album with the group is on the way. They were also nominated for an P3 Guld-award, one of Sweden's most respectable music award shows, but sadly they didn't win.

We’ve also changed place where we upload the songs from Rapidshare to zShare. Please let us know which one you prefer!

posted by Chrille @ 1/22/2006 7 comments

Friday, January 20, 2006

You want more stuff!





















Pay TV - I Want More Stuff
I have learned from various popblogs that Pay TV seems to be quite popular. Most of you have probably already heard their MF-entries "Trendy Discoteque" and "Refrain Refrain". So why not give you all some more? The song I'm sharing is a demo, so it willprobably sound a bit different on the forthcoming album, which is due for release sometime 2006.

Da Buzz - One In A Million
This track is quite rare, since it was only featured on the Japanese version of their second album. Heaven knows why this didn't get on the European album. It's a great track in the typical Da Buzz-spirit.

Ann Winsborn - Fever
I told myself I would never ever share anything of Ann, because I like her so much and want her records to sell.
I made an exception this time though. "Fever" was supposed to be Ann's second single, in summer 2005, but it's not been released yet and it probably won't get an release in Sweden in the future either.
You should never say never though!

Trybe - Sarah Said
I posted another song by Trybe a few weeks ago, and some of you appreciated it and wanted more. So here you are! 'Sarah Said' was, as far as I know, their second single, released in spring 2005. And probably the last one as well.

Please leave a comment after the beep. *beeeeep*

posted by Alexander @ 1/20/2006 5 comments

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

I need a seven, or maybe eleven

Martin Rolinski – How Deep Is Your Love
It’s Martin from BWO! Solo! Before he joined BWO he took part of the third season of Popstars, which was in search of a solo artist. Every week the contestants released an EP with different themes, Bee-Gees being one of them. So here is Martin’s quite rather lovely of ‘How Deep Is Your Love’.

Play – Seven
Popblogs like Popjustice and Into The Groove have both stated that Play were bad, and well, I’m now gonna state the opposite - Play were brilliant! Okay – they did some goddamn awful covers, but if you look deeper you can find lots of great pop songs. Just download ‘Girl’s Mind’, ‘I Must Not Chase The Boys’, ‘Every Little Step’ and ‘Disco Hippie’ and hear for yourself. ‘Seven’ is from their third studio album “Don’t Stop The Music” and really is a proper pop song. First of all I love songs with numbers in it, cheesy I know, but I do. And second of all is the melody along with the production very catchy. And third of all are the girls’ voices strong which always is nice. Play-tracks has been covered too actually, twin-duo Twill covered ‘Is It Love’ from Play’s first album. If you’re a regular reader you’ll know what song I’m talking about since I posted it last summer.

Bonus: 2 Blocks Down – an Alexander bard-penned track from their second album. The lyrics are a bit shit but the song’s still very good.

CTOS Classic: Christian Falk feat. Demetreus – Make It Right (1999)
Christian is a well-respected producer/songwriter here in Sweden, who has worked with artists like Robyn, Titiyo, Stephen Simmonds and Neneh Cherry plus many, many others. He has also released some albums on his own, featuring different acts on vocals on each track. ‘Make It Right’ is from his debut album “Quel Bordel” which was released back 1999, and I actually mimed to this song on a Christmas-show at school as a kid back when it was popular. You could describe Christian’s albums as a mixture of house, pop, R&B and jazz. Christian’s new single will feature Ola Salo (from The Ark) and Robyn on vocals, and the song will premiere on Swedish radio this Saturday! Something tells me that it can’t be anything other than brilliant!

Recommendation: Go to the brilliant popblog Spark*Pop and download the new West End Girls-single with the same name. It’s the best new single of the year so far! Also the new popblog Don’t Stop The Pop includes a couple of (rare) SwePop-tracks.

(Sorry for not finding actual mp3's of the Play-songs, I hope wma’s will do.)

posted by Chrille @ 1/18/2006 8 comments

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Nonstoppop!













AGNES - Emotional [ Purchase ]
Agnes - winner of Idol 2005. I never expected Agnes to win, 'cause my favourites never win. The rest of the population never have the same perfect taste as I do, this time they did though. And I'm glad they did, 'cause Agnes got to record an excellent album. This is one of my favourite tracks. A bit of early Jessica Simpson-pop but so much better.

SEPTEMBER - End of the Rainbow [ Purchase ]
If you like September, you should really purchase her latest album which is brilliant. I can't describe how glad I was when I first listened to it. Finally some disco-oriented pop from Sweden with international class. If you don't like this, you should really consider leaving CTOS for good. :P

CAROLA SZÜCS - Walk A Mile [ Purchase ]
This blog should have something for everyone. And this is something for all you country-lovers out there. Carola participated in Fame Factory 2003/2004, and she finished 5th. For those who are interested in Eurovision, Carola will sing "It Was You"´in the Estonian (!) preselection this year.
I wish her all the best! SHE deserves all the best!

ALBIN - I'll Be Waiting [ Purchase ]
I posted this on my previous blog (Catchy Tunes), but for those who missed it here's another chance. I think it's a great cover. Hope you'll like it too!

posted by Alexander @ 1/14/2006 2 comments

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

They got that lovelight!

Lena Philipsson – Det Ringer På Min Dörr
This is my favourite song off the new Lena Ph-album. It’s a pure, happy (at least the production, I can't excactly call the lyrics happy) pop song which has to be a single. The lyrics are, like in most other Lena songs, damn funny. The first lines of the song goes “I’m walking alone in my house and waiting, only me and a song of Barry White, and he’s singing that he’ll never leave me”, which is rather brilliant! It’s a song like this that was missing on her last album, “Det Gör Ont En...”.

Daniel Lemma – Lovelight
I’m usually not a fan of reggae. At all actually. I’m not going to explain why, but it just doesn’t appeal to me. This however, is a really good reggae song! It’s sang by Daniel Lemma who before this has been a one-hit-wonder here in Sweden, having only one hit a few years ago called ‘I Used To Love You’. I hated that one though. ‘Lovelight’ has that one ingredient which actually is appealing in reggae – it puts you in a good mood. That is probably because of the extremely catchy chorus, or Daniel’s happy voice.

CTOS Classic: Robyn – Say You’ll Walk The Distance (2001) / Darin – Walk The Distance (2005)
One of Robyn’s finest moments is this very, very beautiful ballad called ‘Say You’ll Walk The Distance’. It was featured on some soundtrack for an American movie, but was surprisingly not released as a single. It’s written by the Swedish king of ballads, Jörgen Elofssson, who for example is responsible for the Agnes song I posted a while ago called ‘Right Here, Right Now’. It was also covered by Darin for his latest album so I uploaded his version too.

posted by Chrille @ 1/11/2006 1 comments

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Happy-go-lucky!










Da Buzz - Stronger Than Words Can Say [ Purchase ]
Da Buzz have always been favourites of mine. They give us these extremely catchy and joyful pop-tunes. I don't care if their songs are similiar to eachother, as long as they're good!

Ann Winsborn - Be The One [ Purchase ]
This was Ann's second single and it was quite a success in Poland, where she has gained lots of popularity the last couple of years. Another catchy one for ya!

Eskobar - Love Strikes [ Purchase ]
Probably the only Swedish male band that I like. And this track is one of my many favourites by them.

Anders Johansson - Without You [ Purchase ]
Winner of Fame Factory 2003 and well deserved too. This is a great song which I often listen to.


Didn't write much about the songs today, hope that is okay with everyone. If you want more info on the artists -- leave a comment and I will try and satisfy you with the information you require.

posted by Alexander @ 1/07/2006 4 comments

And the pop extravaganza continues

Ayleen – Hey Girl
This single didn’t get a nation wide release, I picked up my copy visiting Ayleen’s home town, and it’s not available anywhere online. That’s a shame because I think it could’ve been a hit, being one of my most played singles of last year. It’s catchy girl-rock, like something Max Martin could’ve been involved in, but even better than most of the songs he produced/wrote last year, with exception for a few.

After doing some research on Ayleen I found out that she has a record deal on five years so I guess we’ll hear more from her in the future. Hooray for that!

Paris – Captain Morgan
If you haven’t already, you should go to Blow-Up Doll right now and hope that ‘Millions Of Tears’ by the probably best indie-band in Sweden at the moment – Paris – is still available for download. ‘Captain Morgan’, being the first single off their latest album, is one great piece of pop. Despite from a great melody, the lyrics of this song is pure brilliance. It’s about the rum Captain Morgan, or about a night spent with it. It includes lines where she asks Barry Gere to sing falsetto, Jake Shears how to dance good(!!) and lastly thanking the “captain” for a nice evening together. And you must be a maniac not thinking that an indie-band asking Jake Shears how to dance is brilliant.

CTOS Classic: Stephen Simmonds – Tears Never Dry (1997)
This is one of the most underrated ballads of all time. When it was released here in Sweden 1997 it did fairly well, going top 10, but seriously: this deserves to be number one forever and ever! And it didn’t charted anywhere outside Sweden as far as I’m concerned either, which is such a shame. It’s a hidden classic which should be up there with ‘Everything’s Gonna Be Alright’ by Sweetbox and ‘Seven Seconds’ by Neneh Cherry. Just imagine what a hit this could be if it was covered by Jamelia, Sugababes or maybe Lemar.

Bonus: Where Is My Love - a great ballad from his latest album released in 2001. This is more of a grower, but once you get into it you'll find it amazing, believe me.

posted by Chrille @ 1/07/2006 0 comments

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

You've heard about song and you've heard about dance

The Ark – Girl You’re Gonna Get ‘Em (Real Soon)
My favourite group with guitars around is The Ark. An amazing band who’s released three brilliant albums so far. This song is one of their best in my opinion. I absolutely love the riff and there are some amazing 'aaoow'-bits in the chorus. The lyrics are great in an aggressive teenage-revenge kind of way, and I love the end where Ola (the singer and songwriter of the group) sings that all men are cheating monkeys, but that "this monkey tells the truth when he says, girl you're gonna get 'em real soon". It’s coming from their latest, and also my favourite, album of theirs called “State of the Ark”, which is electro-rock at its best. Why ‘Girl You’re Gonna Get ‘Em (Real Soon)’ wasn’t a single will always be a mystery for me, as it has huge hit potential. I also saw The Ark live this summer, and apart from one with Robyn, it was the best gig I’ve ever been to!

Bonus: Deliver Us From Free Will

Cat5 – Stretch & Bend
This a song off the upcoming debut album from the ace girl-duo Cat5. It’s a cheeky and slightly arrogant number about how Cat5 want their boyfriend to be perfect, both with the personality and physically. With other words it’s a type of song you never want your partner to play for you and go “there you are”. The chorus is also, like every other Cat5-song, very catchy.


CTOS Classic: The Knife – Listen Now (2003)
In celebration of the fact that one of my favourite groups The Knife is digitally releasing their new single in about a week (yayness) I’m posting one of my favourite songs off their last masterpiece album “Deep Cuts”. It’s not up there with ‘Heartbeats’, which has to be one of my favourite songs ever, but is definitely an amazing song. Plus – it includes the line: “When you lay down on the kitchen floor, it was the happiest moment for a long long time”. The pictures above are from the video for the new single which is called ‘Silent Shout’. How utterly exciting!!

posted by Chrille @ 1/04/2006 5 comments

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Forgotten Popjewels - Part 1














Yesterday I sat down and went through some old music-magazines, and discovered so many artists and songs that I had forgotten all about until yesterday. And then I came up with the brilliant idea of making a special here on CTOS. A special I would like to call Forgotten Popjewels - Part 1.
Some of these might only be known to other Swedes, but hey, that doesn't mean you can't give them a chance! Enjoy!

Trybe - We Are Invincible
Trybe were formed in 2000 and no other than, Jörgen Elofsson, wrote and produced their debut-single, 'We Are Invincible'. Sadly they never entered the top 60. Trybe consisted of two young girls and two young boys, just like the A*Teens who were enormously popular at that time. And maybe that's why Trybe never really made the public or charts. Anyway, this song is too poptastic for me not to post.

Eagle-Eye Cherry - Save Tonight
The very cool Eagle-Eye, brother of Neneh Cherry, had a massive hit with this single. It became popular all over Europe and even entered the British charts. Who knew Englishman had taste! It was released in 1997, and 9 years later it still sounds up-to-date and fresh. I never get bored with this song.

Lucy Street - Girl Next Door
The three young girls in Lucy Street were quite talented. They played their own instruments, and they actually sang live when they performed. Rare these days! :) 'Girl Next Door' was their debut-single and it became a hit immediately. The video was spinning on the musicchannels and the single sold quite well. In 2000 the song peaked at #3 on the official chart. They released one album and two other singles. Since then.. it's been quiet!

Star - Heaven's On Fire
I have not much to say about this group, 'cause I don't know much about them. Only that they were four women, dressed in colourful, skintight leather. This is a cover of the old Kiss-hit, and I quite LOVE it. Covers are usually never good but I'm not a fan of Kiss, so I like this better.

Please leave a comment after downloading the songs. We would appreciate it!

posted by Alexander @ 1/03/2006 5 comments

Monday, January 02, 2006

Gayest tunes of Sweden

Happy new year people! With exciting debut albums by Marie Serneholt, Linda Sundblad, Anna S, Nouveau Riche, West End Girls, Pay TV and Linda Bengting, and new albums by The Knife, Marit Bergman, Bodies Without Organs, Da Buzz, Darin, Bosson, The Sounds, Ace of Base, Swingfly and NG3 we’re guaranteed a great pop year, so let's get started.

Nouveau Riche – Oh Lord
This is the new project from Dominica who used to be in Army of Lovers, and the ex-boyfriend of no other than Alexander Bard, Ulrich Bermsjö. ‘Oh Lord’ is the debut single, and it actually sounds exactly like something from the Army, but more modern and electro. A couple of weeks ago it went top 10, but just the week after it has mysteriously disappeared out of the top 60.

By the way, this is what the absolutely mad Dominica answered when she was asked why she is in Nouveau Riche: “Me and Ulrich formed the group because we love each other. I don’t want to be a popstar again”. Hm.

Leana – Dance With A Stranger
Like we all know Swedes are quite known for their good English. That’s why I find it weird when a Swede leaves for California for more than 10 years and comes back knowing less English than most Swedes who lives in Sweden. Or am I mad for thinking she sounds like an Eurovision-artist from Eastern Europe? Anyway this was the official Pride-song in Sweden this year (earlier performed by the likes of Nina & Kim and Alcazar). And the song is, just like her English, very Eurovision.

CTOS Classic: Consoul – Do You The Right Way (1997)
After a very interesting discussion in the PJ messageboard it was concluded that Swedish boybands is a rarity, with this being the only one. And now we’re talking pure boybands with silly outfits and dance routines. And no, Herreys doesn’t count. ‘Do You The Right Way’ was Consoul’s biggest hit, though it wasn’t very big peaking at #18. It’s a nice pop song which you will like if you’re a fan of boyband-pop.

Bonus: What If

posted by Chrille @ 1/02/2006 8 comments

Sunday, January 01, 2006

100 % POP!














Sandra Oxenryd - Make Me Better [ Purchase ]
Sandra won Fame Factory in 2005. She was the first girl to ever win the "contest", and she did it good too. Her album was released shortly after her win, and included only 9 tracks - 9 superb tracks though. This is one of them! A song you might have heard by the Dutch singer Esther Hart, who recorded it in 2003.

Lili & Susie - Sending Out A Message
Let's go back in time. During the late 80's and early 90's - Lili and her sister Susie, conquered the Swedish popmarket. You MIGHT have heard their most successful singles 'Oh Mama' and 'What's The Colour of Love?'.
This track is one of my personal favourites. Something for all you 80's music-lovers out there.

Evan - Everything I'd Ever Do (Euro mix) [ Purchase :: Website ]
Evan is quite unknown in Sweden despite his good material. He wrote and produced his debut-album completely on his own. This song I'm sharing was his debut-single and peaked at #19 on the Swedish single-chart. For those who are interested - Evan will sing 'Under Your Spell' in the fourth semi of Melodifestivalen 2006.

Look out for further updates next week.

posted by Alexander @ 1/01/2006 4 comments