If you read this blog in its first year of existence, you'll know how much I loved the solo career of this former a1 member--in fact, I fell in love with his solo music before I'd heard anything from a1, though I changed that quickly and fell in love with a1, too.His debut solo single "Sorry" should have been a much bigger hit than it was, mainly because it's great but secondly because I still desperately need to hear It's Brutal Out There, his debut solo album (I'm never giving up hope). The songs on the album sampler (amazing fun danceable songs "Get Off My Girl" and "Don't Tread On My Toes" and excellent ballad "I Don't Wanna Stay") were all unfailingly great (and still sound fresh these, what, three, four years on), as have been some of the songs he's posted on his MySpace over the years, b-side "Delicious," and songs he's written, like Sergey Lazarev's "Fake" (and you don't know how much it's driven me crazy to not be able to hear in full the songs in that Writing 2006 video he posted--work with Jörgen Elofsson, Eg White, Robin Thicke [though maybe for Thicke], and typical quirky Ben pop songs...life is not complete until I've heard some of the songs in that video).
The point of all this "I love his music" is to communicate that such is my level of liking this artist that it's practically required that I mention any new music he chooses to give us. It's for that reason, then, that I report that he's recently unveiled a Christmas song. Being him, of course, half of it is innuendo and the other half is snarky bemoaning about the Christmas season. It actually is a good catchy mid-to-uptempo pop song, though, and though it's a song probably never meant to go anywhere beyond MySpace and is sort of deliberately restrained and semi-chintzy, I imagine it'll get a lot of plays from me. It makes me want this singer back on the scene even more so.
Also, if you think "Same Old Brand New You" is anything other than AMAZING, you are wrong. One of the best boy band songs ever, and that's saying an awful lot--one of the best pop songs ever, probably.
There's nowhere this song can be purchased, but you can visit this artist's MySpace here and buy the single for "Sorry" here (physical).
Next up: a demo from an American artist.
